Contemporary Literary Review India | Print ISSN 2250-3366 | Online ISSN 2394-6075 | Vol 7, No 1: CLRI February 2020
Dr Sreekanth Kopuri
Marxism
Left in the vision behind
the broken eyeglasses,
the epitomised tools of labour
age and rest in a cosy embrace
with the blunt edged desire.
Here an engineer turned “Marxist”
holds a blunderous biography
re-shuffling the crumpled pages
of violence that do not fail to echo
their terminal voice
that recedes into the clarion call
of the crucified ‘silence’s love,
the edge of its nails dripping with
the crimson life, already suffused
into the burnt out voice that shines
only as a golden epitaph in the
London Highgate Cemetery.
Between the Genesis of life and
revelation of the truth termites are
born to live on the flesh that held
the guns of history and built the
ephemeral libraries that carry the
legacy of time-bound revolutions.
Today a handful of labour unionists
gather before the Machilipatnam
police station to organise a humble
leftist rally that ends with the alcoholic
puffs out of the slumber in the police van.
A Letter to Bharata Ratna Dr. Br Ambedkar
Dear Baba Saheb!
When I went to
the Government Bank
in Amaravati yesterday,
to see my son “Joseph”,
they said “none by such name”
but the watchman said
“your son is called Praveen
at his workplace, but
elsewhere on duty today.”
I was grateful to his kind words
and glad that he meant his name
which means, “talent”
that was in the Government records.
Then I remembered those words,
If one converts to Christianity
he ceases to be an Indian.
If my son diligently
disowns Christ
at his work and still be
a secret active member
in Church taking part
in the holy communion
and calls it Democracy,
do I then have a right
to re-baptise and put his
Government job at stake?
In a dream that night
I saw a wall with
your name on it and
on its right the dreams of my son
were honoured at the feet of
the emblematic lions fluttering
on the national flag,
on its left a handful of “apostates”
were walking away
from Chaitanya Bhoomi
crossed by a pride of
hungry lions near the
oldest Buddhist monastery
in Hemis national park
on the India’s head.
May be a Daniel
must come to judgement
for a dialogue between
the scheduled and
the unscheduled lives
of this Good Earth
for Christ’s sake.
About the Author
Dr Sreekanth Kopuri (M.A., M. Phil., Ph. D.) is an Indian English poet from Machilipatnam. Kopuri is a Professor of English in Vasavi College, Machilipatnam, dividing his time between teaching and creative writing. He is the author of two books of poetry Poems of the Void and The Shadows. He is the recipient of the Best Researcher Award for 2019 from ITSR Foundation, and JK International Award from JK Foundation from India for his research contributions to Indian English Poetry. He has recited his poetry and presented research papers in many reputed universities like University of Oxford UK, John Hopkins University USA, Heinrich Heine University Germany, Banja Luka University Bosnia, University of Caen France, University of Gdanski Poland Jagiellonian University Poland and Wilkes University USA.
His poems have been published in Impspired Magazine, The Heartland Review, Synaeresis Journal, A New Ulster, Word Fountain, Ann Arbor Review, Scryptic Magazine, Five 2 One, Vayavya, Paragon Journal, Foliate Oak Review, Halcyon days, Oddball, Forty Eight Review, McKinley Review, Ariel Chart, Poetcrit, Indian Periodical, Deccan Chronicle and in anthologies A Flood of Contentment, Land & Territory and Dementia Anthology USA and elsewhere.
