By Sarita Jenamani
Corona Nights
When our nocturnal solitude
makes us mourn the moment given
we should think of the images
of those handwritten notes,
family heirlooms
and poems sent in the hope
they would get buried
alongside those who die
in hospitals alone
.
We should not forget
contours of those who could not caress
cheeks of their dear departed
one last time holding their hands
and seeing them dying gracefully
.
We should be alive
to what happens
before the breadth diffuses
in the shadow of night
and the dream dissolves
.
We should be aware
a little harbour lies in the sand
of our grief-stricken survival
that builds a boat
out of this temporal wrack
enabling us sail
towards a new dawn
.
This Spring
This spring
a dark sign looms
in the far-east horizon
Silk route brings us
neither softness of silk
nor aphrodisia of spices
myriad of dawns
the vermilion silhouette of night
rises to mark the mirror of death.
.
This spring
denies dignity
to the dead
turn prayers into torture
as the honeycomb of memory
stacks the images of dead ones
This spring
When I write I write
only silence and solitude
by a flickering of hope
while attempting to overcome the dark
.
Quarantines
In isolation
you understand
how isolated you are
from yourself
.
Walking through the eerily quiet streets
of your inner ruins
you discover
a virus-plagued world whispers
that you have forgotten
you exist
in relation to others
.
Sarita Jenamani is a poet of Indian origin based in Austria, a literary translator, anthologist, and editor of a bilingual magazine for migrant literature – Words & Worlds – a human rights activist, a feminist and general secretary of PEN International’s Austrian chapter. She has three collections of poetry. She writes in English, Odia and translates to and from German. Sarita translated Rose Ausländer, a leading Austrian poet, and an anthology of contemporary Austrian Poetry from German into Hindi and Odia. She has received many literary fellowships in Germany and in Austria including those of the prestigious organizations of ‘Heinrich Böll Foundation’ and ‘Künstlerdorf Schöppingen’. She studied Economics and Management Studies in India and Austria where she works as a marketing manager.
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