Exhortation Poem by Ananya Guha

If you lash a body and splash some blood
you will know poignancy
but not death. Death turns around
every corner in countries of dry inertia.
Lassitude. Death is a pigeon hole of laughter.
So go tell them that they must look at angels
or the devil.Or must not typecast God.
They must look for parallels in histories
of solitude.

Let them go to the slums and see the glistening
space there. The spaces of love and excruciating
death. The bird will hover over strangulating skies

and plummet to death
(when they do this) .