Sundown
By Kala Ramesh
Chennai/Pune, India
Meanwhile a city wired to the hustle and bustle of aspirations.
Kali temple
a mantra-mumbling priest
cuts the goat’s throat
Bones Journal: #22, February 2021
The Red Dot
By Kala Ramesh
Chennai/Pune, India
Chennai/Pune, India
the red dot
on my forehead
binds me
to a man
who’s in his own orbit
parading
the so-called equality
with iron bars concealed …
this urban woman lives
in her dreams
on my forehead
binds me
to a man
who’s in his own orbit
parading
the so-called equality
with iron bars concealed …
this urban woman lives
in her dreams
—tanka doha (tanka couplet)
Kabir, a 15th-century Indian mystic-poet-saint, is famous for his doha. We have longer tanka sequences, but there is something special about a twin tanka which says so much in a short span of 10 lines.
Tiger Tiger
By Kala Ramesh
Chennai/Pune, India
tiger tiger
dwindling rapidly—
my grandchild
one day will know you
only from pictures
Tanka 2020 (Red Moon Press Anthology)
Vultures
Kala Ramesh
Chennai/Pune, India
vultures
around a dead elephant –
tusks missing
Modern Haiku: issue 52.1, February 2021