A Birth Day Wish For A Comrade. Poem by Ponniah Ganeshan

I paint you not as I saw
But as I think
Your face emerges beautifully
In my memory
On this date of your birth!

I found the paints in a mixture
of reddish color
collected on the Long March of Mao Tse Tung
I cut down a piece of canvas out of the ether
And placed it on my wall
I also made a brush out of the cigar held in the mouth of
Che Guevara
I started painting you
Not as I saw, but as I think.

Down-trodden, oppressed and suppressed
Are rushing to look at your picture
Wishing you a long life
The picture with the flagrant smelling
Of thoughts from Karl Marx.
Long live my comrade.

You talk about revolution
You talk about the history of class struggle
Telling us not to wait till the apple is ripe
But lets make it fall.

In a land where even the children and women are killed,
We managed to live long and you, turning the sixtieth page of your life
And I am just fourth page behind in the book of life, myself.
Yet, I may be disappeared beforehand
Jumping up hundred feet ahead, all of a sudden
And it is not in our hand.

Take up the clear stream that freely flows within my heart
Accepting it as my present on your birth day
The stream with no intention to quench one’s thirst
The stream with no intention for anyone to wash his dirt
I, myself become the stream for you to wish you, all the best.