MOTHER LANGUAGE
DAY
Vandana Kumar
It’s mother language day
A day so far away
From where I
currently reside
My little one
sucks my lactating breasts
I doubt if he has
ever found
My mother tongue
resting there
Neither has my
husband discovered it
On the taste of my
lips
I visit the grave
of my ancestors
Hoping to find a
language
They left behind
In some waylaid
leaves
Only specters
signal me
In Morse code
The desire to dig
digger
Comes now and then
In phases
Meanwhile I
faithfully hold
Annual
remembrances for all of them
In English
WELL-FED CHILDREN
We first fed our
children the classic lie
That they came
from the lands of angels
And fairies
That they were
made in some cirrus clouds
Sprinkled with
stardust
We hid it all
Creation
Procreation
Sex between the sheets
Sex served with a
dry martini
Sex in the
bloating cities
Sex in the
starving villages
We hid it all
Leaving them to
find the holes in our theories
As they struggled
to find themselves
In their own
abysses
Left bewildered
For all of the
love making
A world in
constant war
Adults, who
couldn’t be trusted at all
Vandana Kumar is a French teacher, translator, recruitment consultant, Indie Film Producer, cinephile and poet in New Delhi, India. Her poems have been published in national and international websites of repute like Mad Swirl, Grey Sparrow Journal, The Piker Press, Dissident Voice, Borderless journal, Madras Courier, Outlook, etc. She has featured in literary journals like Fine Lines and anthologies like Harbinger Asylum, Kali Project, But You Don't Look Sick, etc. Her cinema articles appear regularly in Just-cinema and Daily Eye. She was among 40 participating poets in the ‘The Indija Pro Poet 2023’ festival held in June23 in Serbia. Her poem was translated into Serbian in the Pro Poet anthology published there. Her debut collection of poems Mannequin Of Our Times was published in February 2023.The book has been awarded ‘The Panorama International Book Award 2023.’
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