Three Poems

Illustration by Copilot Designer

1.     Anachronism

Ekalavya is eager to learn

Unlike his contemporaries

Who are buried in digital graves.

 

‘What’s anachronism?’ He queries.

‘Anachronism is,’ says Bharadvaja,

He pauses, muses, and pronounces:

‘Sita Devi’s chastity was questioned

By a barber named Al Ansari bin Laden,

According to the latest grave-digging

Of Archaeological Survey of India.’

 

 

2.     Exorcist

 

History textbooks are haunted by the ghosts

Of Akbar and Babur and Gandhi and Nehru.

So the Prime Minister decides to become

The Exorcist of the nation

In order to save Ekalavyas

From graves that refuse to be

Closed by sward shroud.

 

 

3.     Redemption

 

Ekalavya opens his new history textbook.

Words look like petrifying ghosts

That want blood, Ekalavya’s blood.

So he chooses to leave his country

And settle down in Trudeau’s Canada.

At least.

PS. 2024 was a year in which I didn't write any poem at all. That realisation made me feel sad. Is poetry dying within me? That's why I decided to write these lines... I don't know if there's poetry in them. You decide.