Once upon a time.

::::

We taught our boys and girls to sing,

a lullaby, a war song and an epithalamion offering .

And the women went to the hearth-             

To light up the fire, and stir the earth.

Our men sat by the fire, smoking the meats

Sucked the end of the fruit, the succulent tips

And like that-while we lay abiding

the parasite came, and swept us clean.

It crept inward and shortened our hymns

with renewed hoarseness, our houses began to screech.

Our cattle bellowed, our children cried and

Along the river, our brave men looked

And found a breath of new airs-amen- quickly

Into the village, they brought it like an old flame

Our young men were the first to pronounce  amen

And slowly it became a country only for old men

Man against man, woman against woman, child

Every man to his woman said, something’s amiss.

We did not know we took the parasite with our meals,

& Long before our duels ended, our children became unclean.

We called ourselves in different names, in prolonged

Tones our speech impregnated with a million tongues

Our piglets died, our duels grew old-

Our men and women, sickened, less bold.

Our village is an exile, but godknows

We stirred the earth once upon a time.

(Picture Courtesy: Elika Sumi)