I Killed the Brahman

The river of innocence was drowned
I grew up early
Barely six, I lit his pyre..
A hole where his vermillion was..
Wouldn’t burn…

The hole of my being…a Brahman
A hated soul…a hated existence
Had Sharda changed sides..
She stood mute..i wouldn’t know
Mute stood everyone else…

A deafening silence…
Was the answer to everything I asked
I searched for my answers
And I grew
Diffident ,dalit….and a brahman

Everyone loved hating me..
I loved it too…
Hate-my subsistence
My food for thought
My existence in exile…..

I grew up early
And I drowned the pyre and the river
And the tears…
I cut the thread
And the tuft….
I wailed and rejoiced….
Sang and cried…
I wallowed in the sand…
Abused Nadim ..his Kashmir

I hated my self
I cooked it on the wet pyre
Ate it up..
Slept
And woke up
No more a brahman…

The poem first appeared here..http://www.ryze.com/posttopic.php?topicid=857942&confid=1199

And the World Remained Silent

The sweeper came to clean the road
In the sweepings among other things
was the pony tail of a young child
who was last playing in her mother's lap

The boatman was happy
he netted a big fish
a fish with human shape
with a sacred thread around it

The lonely priest walked into the temple
with a tumbler full of pious water and flowers
to wash Shiva...
all he had to wash was human excreta.

the twice born was dead
for ever
cleansed....cut...dried..
and pasted on the books of history

and the world remained silent

The poem with its comments is here
http://www.ryze.com/posttopic.php?topicid=856348&confid=1199