The Unmaking: three poems

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By Chitra Kalyani

The Unmaking

 

You would change homes, names, countries, religions, genders, tongues, species -

If only that would unmake it all.

 

you cannot stand it, cannot stand,

   can not,

 

when you know your daughter is under the rubble

you can lift, and lift,

  And lift.

It

makes

you

lift.

It makes you.

But what can we do?

Do what eyes can do - watch, cry,

Do what ears can do - listen

Do what noses do - breathe

Do what mouths do - taste, speak, refuse to eat

Do what the skin does - feel, burn, grow cold

Do what the heart does - beat, break, stop; love far and wide, far across to the other side.

Sense and sensibility

 

The only thing considered sensible.

is to make money (to monetize myself)

and to keep it safe (in a safe)

and circulating (in a circle).

 

The world too moves in a circle,

To produce (and reproduce)

To keep us safe (and unsafe)

The world (makes no sense) is wise.

Chitra Kalyani is based in New Delhi. Her poems have previously been published in The Passionfruit Review and in a pamphlet 'Ten Poems of Kindness' by Candlestick Press. Her essay 'How to tell him that you have bipolar disorder' was also published in Point of View / Skin Stories.