Oh India

 

India ”“a love poem

 

I fell in love with a woman so vast

Her head rests in the heights of the Himalayas

And her toes in the waters of the Indian

Men can only ogle her full tragedy

Her resplendid beauty

Her epic daily unfoldings

From satellite dishes

 

She rides a scooter

wearing Sari, Sunglasses and high heels

Baby balanced on one shoulder

Cell phone in the other

 

She makes love to me

then leaves before I wake

 ”“with my wallet-

 

Kisses my hands

Then cuts them off

Hands me a crutch

Makes me beg for her

 

 

Feeds me with feasts

That make me shit for a week

Opens my eyes

Then sweeps dirt in them

Sings me to sleep in palace beds

Lets me wake in the gutters

She likes to stare

 to make a ridiculous spectacle of herself

Celebrates life and death

And if there was no distinction between the two 

 

”˜Bolly would

 if she could

But she couldn’t

So she slept in the slums and dreamt of the stars’

 

She is a million scents

One minute piss the next minute petals

Saffron and sulphur

I no not the difference

 

Brash, brazen, bold, stupid

Sultry, intoxicating, seductive

Putrid

 

Her body a map

 bruised and divided by history

 Her veins -holy rivers and tributaries

Consecrated and desecrated

A countenance

Battered but smiling

 

Divorced from her ex colonel lover

-Pakistan

And pursuing ruthless custody

Over reluctant child

-Kashmir

 

Nursing not her pride

But bastard children

In shadows of shame

 

Her head pushed into a new age

Whilst her heart resides in the old

Indelible and Incredible

Adorned and adored

(So the brochures promised) 

Abhorred and abashed

(Some details were emitted)

 

They try to incinerate her on the pyre

Throw her sturdy hips to the Ganjess fish 

but she is stronger then fire

She can only rise

                          Rise

                               rise

 

 Kali wrecks havoc on a surfboard and monstrous waves

But she is stronger then water

She can only Swim

                          Swim

                                   Swim 

 

A fairy tale princess

Pursued by

Kings and princes

Politicians and demons

Possessing such beauty and horror

That mirrors and men’s hearts

Shatter

When they gaze upon her 

 

She has no happy ending

Only an endless beginning

 

My India