Mules Poem by Yuyutsu Sharma

Mules

Rating: 5.0


On the great Tibetan
salt route they meet me again

old forsaken friends...

On their faces
fatigue of a drunken sleep

their lives worn out,
their legs twisted, shaking

from carrying
illustrious flags of bleeding ascents.

Age long bells clinging
to them like festering wounds

beating notes
of a slavery modernism brings:

cartons of Iceberg, mineral water bottles,
solar heaters, Chinese tiles, tin cans, carom boards

sacks of rice
and iodized salt from the plains of Nepal Terai.

Butterflies of
the terraced fields know their names.

Singing brooks tempests
of their breathless climbs.

Traffic alert
and time-tested, they climb

carrying
dreams of posh peacocks

pamphlets
of a secret religious war

filth
of an ecologist's sterile semen

entire kitchen
for a cocktail party at the base camp

defunct development
agenda of guilty donors

the West's weird visions
lusting for an instant purge.

Stone steps
of the mountains embossed

on their drugged brains,
like lines of aborted love

scratched
on the historic rocks of waterspouts.

Starry skies
of the dozing valleys know

the ache
of their secret sweat.

Sunny days
along the crystal rivers

taste
of their bleeding eyes.

Greatest fiction
of the struggling lives lost,

like real mules
clattering their hooves on the flagstones,

in circling
the cruel grandeur

of blood thirsty
mule paths around the glacial of Annapurnas.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Pramithas Dhakal 28 January 2014

You wrote a world out here....

1 0 Reply
Suresh Babu 24 October 2009

Great poem, I love the concrete details and sharp biting tone. Reminds me of the trek I had years ago. Strong stuff.

1 0 Reply
Milica Franchi De Luri 23 October 2009

I saw a wonderful Tibetan movie once. It was similar to your poem. I enjoyed both. Good poem, excellent composition.............score of 10

1 0 Reply
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Yuyutsu Sharma

Yuyutsu Sharma

Nakodar, Punjab / India
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