Taming The Tounge Poem by Veerankutty Kollanary

Taming the Tongue
Writing down the names
of the silence-breakers in the class,
I got them lashed well;
Never failed to put my hand on my mouth
Wherever I saw the instruction ‘Keep Silence';
Learned to be disciplined on the admonition ‘don't make noise';
Heard many a time the talk ‘Chatterers and Patriotism';
Hung on the wall the pictures of those
who ordered ‘hold your tongue and do work';
Practiced regularly special yoga for taming the tongue,
And got habituated to vow of silence.
Now my tongue owns the endurance of saying nothing
On seeing or hearing anything.
I haven't wasted even a single opportunity to escape
With the adornment of silence.
I live in total silence excelling the dumb
Now life is perfectly happy.
The fear of assaulting those with dissenting voices
No longer affects me.
The only discomfort is this:
An uncooked piece of flesh lies across my mouth,
Unable to spit out or swallow.

Poem by Veerankutty mhfil