Be benevolent
to thy
because in the end, self is what
you got. Vie
for the entire pie.
Not even a tree
is benign
to its peers. Beneath
the harmony
of earth,
do you notice the war
that goes on? Roots knot
against the roots.
Resources are scant. The blade
of grass that trembles in the air
is indeed engaged in a war
against the encroachment
of weeds.
Flowers are in clash
to attract butterflies.
This aisle of the lilac
is a whore’s alley,
all dressed up
and queued.
It would be an evening of bloody work.
Birds cruising above thee
are not part
of the serene as you think.
Sharp-eyed
they scout for bugs, food.
Cruel
and calculative,
the mongoose
pursues
the snake.
And the river is a battle zone where
in the dimness of the mud water,
the ravenous eyes trawl
for the shadows of its prey.
The lizard waits behind the rock
for the arrival of its kill and this mind of yours
is not a gift
you think. It is an engine
you built over millions of years.
Nachschlagen und sehen!
Der Himmel
flammt in der Raserei.
Wie ein Fluß
möchte den Ozean
treffen, Blutgeschwüre
für Blut. Fleisch erwartet
mehr Fleisch, planets
are combatants in a standoff,
and the cosmos is not an algebraic summation of stars,
but meatballs
boiling
in its cosmic gravy.
When everything is devoured;
O holy serpent of greed,
peel your onion self
layer
after
layer
and discover
you borrowed the sand
for your bust
from the shore of an ocean
that died an eon ago
where
once thee gobbled
thy own flesh.
Sankar Roy, originally from India, is a poet, translator, activist and multimedia artist living near Pittsburgh, PA. He is a winner of PEN USA Emerging Voices, a Rosenthal Fellow, a finalist for Benjamin Franklin Award, winner of Skipping Stone Award, a finalist for University of Arkansas Open Book Competition and three-times semi-finalist for Crab Orchard Review Competition, two-times nominee for Pushcart Prize and author of three chapbooks of poetry– Moon Country, The House My Father Could Not Build and Mantra of the Born-free (all from Pudding House, 2006, 2007). He is an associate editor of international poetry anthology, Only the Sea Keeps: Poetry of the Tsunami (Rupa Publication, India and Bayeux Arts, Canada). Sankar's poems have appeared or forthcoming in over seventy literary journals and anthologies.
