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Biting my Tongue
My teeth close, a portcullis on my tongue.
I am reminded of the price of protection. Pappamma kept her drunken man
as defence against his tribe.
Men recognise some limits
those set by other men.
*
A Compound of Words; Fiona Bolger; Yoda Press; Poetry; ₹195
‘ Pardesi Jaana Nahin’
movie in four scenes
setting: crowded Katra market
scene i
he whips out his pocket comb
neatly coiff s his hair
in a double handed gesture
begins his song, a star role
he’s proud of
scene ii
she hears the song
catchy tune, unaware
her fate is sealed
by these singing lips
trapped between the bars
scene iii
hustling bodies
hooting horns
constant surveillance
curious eyes, any slowness
an invitation to conversation
scene iv
later she understands
the words, the tune
her part, the script
she feels typecast
but cannot find a better role
*
Ghazal for a Kashmiri Girl
In a small town a teenage girl comes out
dishevelled from a stinking bathroom, considered out
of bounds—and they argue about decency
and question her honour. Out
of bounds to query the soldier who
also emerged after she came out.
The witnesses gathered a crowd
went to the barracks and called him out.
He never came but she was held with
her father, her aunt— all kept out
of their home for days.
until a police video was put out
it was all nothing, nothing happened. Five locals
died, before the news of nothing got out.
*
A Sumeet Mixie Box of Photos
it’s time to leave our home
the wardrobe packed full of photographs
mountains you climbed in Polish miners’ boots
soles later ripped off and replaced
deserts where we slept under Holi moons
heard of a birth far away
days by the sea, building sand temples
fully dressed splashing in the waves
and then our wedding album
three days of joining together
bound so tight we felt choked
and when I struggled to be free
you held on tighter
the mixie is still working
but not for me
*
Fióna Bolger’s poetry collection ‘a compound of words’, published by Yoda Press, will be released in November 2019
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