Four Street Poems of Cheran

On this Street Anytime — 1

If you walk straight ahead
On this street anytime
The bridges are icy

The roadway
meant for
Fire engines in a hurry
Snowed
The highway split in two

On the right
The glow and glamor of wealth
Its walkway
shining night and day

On the left
Our land of coolies
Its streetway
unknown to many
If you speed
A revolution might come
However

Now
A doused dream
A burning heart.
 
On this Street Anytime — 2

A dried jack fruit
leaf falls down
it will not fly at night
in the dead of day
only the military tank
rushes over it
sunlight turns it
into a trace on the street

On this street anytime a boy
Sometimes a girl
would be dragged out
and shot

Their blood is not wasted
At first quickly and then leisurely
It seeps into the paddy field

Before being killed
many are the witnesses
who saw
his and her eyes
It was the poet’s task
to gather them then

With great weariness
on this street anytime
a murderer falls down
In his fingers,
a cigarette
waiting
to be lit.
Without love or claim
the one who torches it
anytime is our national anthem.
 
On this Street Anytime — 3

On this street anytime
You
can get it with a body
Pleasure is but a part of it
Wetness a mere wound

On this street anytime
We
may melt together
as body and soul
as the indivisible full form
like dogs
like swallows
like colorless butterflies
like snakes
We can come together

At the end of the of Fall
leftover leaves are the only
witness

Enlightenment for the falling leaf
Lust for the sprouting leaf

On this street anytime
We can fuck without love
It is unknown
how much warmth
remains
in the sperm that fell
on the snow

On this street anytime
I throw out unfinished
poems written on
beautiful colored paper

Whose feet
steps on them on the street?
 
On this Street Anytime — 4

On this street anytime awaits
an unfilled pothole
Rain during the winter season
leaves that fall in the cold
The wind that freezes in the chill
Fill that hole

Near it

A white policeman
Shot.
Two boys.
Multiple times.

That pothole
twice filled up with blood.
Both of them looked exactly
like my son

Height. Beauty. Black. Brave.

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