30

Jan

7:26pm
Luis Lazaro Tijerina USA
BURNING PYRES IN INDIA, DURING THE PLAGUE

BURNING PYRES IN INDIA, DURING THE PLAGUE

Luis Lazaro Tijerina USA//7:26pm, Jan 30th '22

“Remember me at the time of death, close down the doors of the senses and place the mind in the heart”

-The Bhagavad Gita

Night fires flicker in the thousands and thousands,

Bodies come one after another,

To be placed on funeral pyres,

There is not even time to say goodbye to the dead,

O India, O India, the raging fires that burn

in the hearts of your living.

In Delhi, the crematoriums are blocked with traffic,

Ambulances, trucks carrying innocents and those judged

to have offended the State—

All of them brought to the funeral fires.

Filtered sunlight has come upon the sultry air,

The wind breathes where those who once breathed, and can no longer breathe for companionship,

Nor to do their daily tasks,

Or take up that task of the humble warrior—

Arjuna who yearned to know glory from weapons,

Shiva bestowed upon him,

that mighty bow and arrow,

defying fate.

Even the gods must breathe

to live in the minds of men,

Oxygen that fuels life, now and forever among

the trees and banks of rivers,

Grief and despair among wooden pyres, smoke filling

the air,

The noonday sun turns into dark dusk on the mighty

Ganges River, where one bathes, and one prepares

for the final voyage.

Lord Krishna speaks not from tombs,

For his voice is the voice of the Indian people, In this time, and for all time,

And I heard from my own room in Québec City,

Words at the Ghazipur crematorium, “So many dead… It feels like if this continues, there will be no one left in Delhi.”,

I think of the ancient tragedies at Troy and Athens,

When plagues took down both invader and defender

of a homeland.

The air is pungent with the smell of smoke and fire,

If you read our blogs then why not our magazine!!!
Image
Click here to subscribe our monthly magazine

Mangoes, pomegranates with bright, orange holy flowers laying, in their own immutable grief, among human ashes.

We shall remember the sirens blaring

in the streets of Indian cities.

And how shall history remember us,

Whether we live or die in India, or some other place

of refuge?

Red bangles lay on the plagued bodies,

Masked among the now living, and the unmasked

now among the dead,

And how much did we know of each other,

Before the wearing of masks?

At Ghazipur the eternal sun has set with her dead,

And pyres are raging again, flame upon flame,

The air filled with heat, private anger, the loss

for the beloved,

The roar and crackling of flame and wood,

We, like Arjuna, we go forward,

Amid the death shrouds of every Indian City.

The Indian labor, the farmers in West Bengal,

Those homeless in Noida,

We shall not forget their grief and sorrow.

We grieve, each in his or her way,

The funeral pyres scorching what we once were,

And now, in this time of sobbing,

with empty hands, and grief in our hearts,

India, we remember you.

Luis Lázaro Tijerina, Québec City, QC

May 1st, 2021 – Burlington, Vermont, 2022

"The truth always win and the lies always fail"
Oscar Smith Nicaragua//5:57pm, Nov 2nd '21

"The truth always win and the lies always fail"

Nicaragua, the biggest country in Central America has been targeted by US imperialism throughout different administrations from democrats to republicans and self-described "progressive" congressmen and....

Read More
Interview with the Midwestern Marx
Eddie Smith and Carlos Garrido //11:32am, Oct 3rd '21

Interview with the Midwestern Marx

On behalf of The International, Akash Chatterjee and Debojit Banerjee conducted an interview with Eddie Smith & Carlos Garrido from Midwestern Marx, an organisation that works for the working class in....

Read More
Bogdanov comes alive: How the PLB magazine put him back on the map
Sumedha Chatterjee Ireland//8:19pm, Jan 21st '22

Bogdanov comes alive: How the PLB magazine put him back on the map

All things cultural have a smattering of bourgeoisie elements to them. Our conception of art, culture, literature, our leisurely pursuits reek of bourgeoisie elements. Which sometimes makes me ask whether....

Read More
Socialist Countries Lead the Pandemic Response
Adele Cain Sweden//8:31pm, Oct 14th '20

Socialist Countries Lead the Pandemic Response

At home and abroad, Socialist states have been at the forefront of public health, international aid efforts and medical research from the earliest days of the pandemic. Vietnam, Laos, Cuba and China have....

Read More
The Libyan Political Dialogue Forum: Will it save Libya or destroy the country?
Steven Sahiounie USA//8:19pm, Nov 20th '20

The Libyan Political Dialogue Forum: Will it save Libya or destroy the country?

The Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF), organized by the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and led by Stephanie Williams, former US Charge d’Affaires in Libya, opened in Tunis on November 9. At....

Read More
What is the cause of Peru's political crisis  and who is responsible? – An Interview
Work of The International//5:20pm, Dec 23rd '22

What is the cause of Peru's political crisis and who is responsible? – An Interview

“Many people in urban and wealthier areas do not accept that a peasant who speaks differently from them and dresses differently from them should be their president, and that is why they persecuted him....

Read More