Madathil Rajendran Nair Poems

Amidst decorations sat
The expectant mother
Her teeth gleamed in jasmine smile
As guests and greetings poured in
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Saturday market in our place
inadvertent like a poem unplanned
like sudden summer rain
They converge all over the place
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Head lost in the clouds of Victorian grandeur,
Abbey inscriptions of fame, genius and valor,
euphoric over Brexit, trembling yet
and ducking from uncertain economic fall-outs,
...

Palmyra Tree
That is the name of a place
In the High Range Wayanad of Kerala
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Where am I to find your soul
Oh, Vancouver, where are you?

In your magnificent parks
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You came uncalled
To sweep us in your folds
And drag us to depths unknown
You came uncalled
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They streaked blazing a trail
Across Awareness that is Thee
Seven petals on to Your Lotus Feet!
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Oh, brilliant eyes!
Yet to blossom smile!
Visage profoundly serene!
Show me the way sublime
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(The sad news of Aruna Shabaugh’s death headlined newspapers across India this morning. She was a nurse at King Edward Memorial Hospital, Parel, Mumbai. She went into a vegetating coma after a ward-boy sexually assaulted her in 1973 and remained in that state at the same hospital for the last forty-two years under the care of her colleagues/staff. The hospital was just across the street from Haffkine Institute where I was working at the time of the incident. Although I am happy her ordeal has ended, the news of her passing away broke me down. A tsunami of empathy engulfs me and I wish the whole nation is washed by it.)
__________
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Intubated I lay for air
Connected to a ventilator
For many days under others’ care
At their mercy, on intravenous drip
...