Who Am I ?
English Translation: Madhuri Palaji
Telugu Original : Dr K.Geeta
Present broke into pieces like the state
Like the sky filled with clouds somewhere
Lonely fear that doesn’t know the way
And doesn’t know where to go
Holding the heart tightly
And making a decision dumbly
The country’s division in forty seven
Sad remembrances
Blood stains
Of destroyed lives on either side
Are they going to sprout here, too?
The secret prayers of lips
Where is my future?
What moment is fearless?
Twenty years of birth place on one side
Twenty years of life’s birth place on the other
Which one is mine?
Which side is mine?
My life
Hanging with last breath
On the edge of a knife
Or on the edge of a well
Or on the barrel of a gun
Every day now
Is the remnant of seconds
Burning arrow that pierces
My life under the anguishing flamy cells
The first part that’s destroyed this side
My language belongs to one part
My heart belongs to another
At the end of my childhood
At the end of my life
Wherever
My future
After forties
Hangs as last breath
My side’s historical state
Is a life time’s emptiness
My existence doesn’t belong to the state I’m in
Nothing remained in the state I was born in
Like the cloudy sky floating
Like the aimless vast space all around
Layers of sorrow
Climbing flames of poisonous presence
Flowing fluidic life
On the slippery stone
That won’t let anyone stand
Belonging nowhere
With no identity
On today’s date
Where should I go?
Where should I go?
Where is my native place?
Who am I?
Who am I?
*****
Madhuri Palaji is a writer and book reviewer from India. Her book “Poems of The Clipped Nightingale” is available on Kindle. She writes book reviews for various publishing houses like Penguin Random House, Meerkat Press, Hot Tree Publishings, Bethany Publishers, etc. She is one of the top 50 book reviewers in India. Her reviews are available at http://www.theclippednightingale.com/