Into The Ashes, I Myself Burnt Down Poem by Ponniah Ganeshan

It was someone who brought a parcel
From the black ocean
Containing some of my poems
Written some years ago
To my address nameless
Yet it’s my street
It’s my place of abode.

Opened the parcel and saw
A poem devoid of its flower
Hung in a corner of the sheet
Some fell down, broken into pieces.

Where did I misplace them
How did I loose them?
Aren’t they worthy of crowning my name
Then, how did the man bring it to me
Again
To my address nameless.

I asked the man ‘Who sent it back? ’
He was silent and did not a single word he said
He wrote a name and vanished.

Then, why should I keep these poems
Thrown into my face?
I have to bury them
I have to burn them to ashes
I set fire,
Poems struggled and struggled
Uttering her name again and again.

It’s now burning
It’s burning
Like a fire set to my heart
At last it’s burnt to ashes.

Again I saw,
The skeleton of the name, the man wrote
Was lying alive into the ashes, I myself burnt down.