POEMS
AJANTA
(from the
caves)
pierce through
torch
light
you enter/
gasp /
exit/
you restore from
the street your text
of
displacement
you delineate the vihara, the
chaitya,
rock-cut replicas
of wooden architecture of the day
apsidal halls of
secular communities & guilds
a hall built like
the inside of a whale
modernity the
conception of secular desire
all
sides
the power of
“cave”
war, interrupts,
cave
war, interrupts,
woman, exiting, her, cave
Pakistani girl asks
who are you?
traditionally
clad
from
Vancouver
lives with
her
Muslim
grandparents
in
Aurangabad
hidden behind
scarf
pale blue with
filaments of ornamental gold
while the fires of
Torra Bora still smoke
industry to all
sorts responds
the
listener
to all
sorts
the
buyer
the
traveler
the money market
account
&hawkers,
desperate for coins
sell jagged
glinting crystals from nearby hills
to all sorts action
claims collectivity & yet…
the buds of this
crystal play an action with light
natural delineation
of grace/gasp/ exit the cave
& animals
reincarnate to Buddhahood
kinship among all
forms of life
marginal? all strata depicted on the
walls
pauperized? all strata…
Daravi slums of
Mumbai
less good reason
a treason of “them”
& company
less
good
a terra, a terror,
a territory, refuge in a cave off the street
& Kabir took me
to a rectangular sacred pool in the middle of the city
where everything
sounded different, muted & we said
“The creeps from
Contra back in their loud arrogance”
& he said:
“& US rushed
request from Israel for more than
1,300 US-made M26
cluster bombs
and how the
reshaping of the Middle East
destabilizes us
all”
& I said:
“& the street
action in January
& the railroad
bombing on the peace trail,
Delhi to Lahore.
windows barred you can’t
escape”
& Kabir
said:
“xenophobia”
&
I:
“complex
conflagration
each a world
apart
& until you
recognize Palestine
&
we said:
“the dis of slaughter”
“the dis of
displacement”
&
global
&
human
&
Habermas
/ RIP /
terra verde, red
& yellow ochres, lamp black,
lapis lazuli all
went to make this paint, clay mixed with rice husk &
gum
& then a coat
of lime applied for smoothness
a pigeon being
chased by a hawk who says it’s his lawful prey
takes refuge with a
king who cuts
out
an equal piece of
flesh from his own body
& RIPS into the secular
at the airport in
Beirut during the 6 day war, a submachine gun to the dakini’s
head
slowly chipping
away at artifice
the top of the
woman’s shoulder lifted as a lid
& the juice
poured in to make her run, keep
running
on empty
puddles of oil for the asking
is it
“ relegare” or
“religare”?
& I asked what is it worth?
& Kabir
said
“run on your
own juice
where images are
forbidden
& you have the
mystical dome, the mystical stupa
