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

175 years of the Communist Manifesto and Workers Strike in Europe
Valentin Cartillier France//12:56am, Mar 8th '23

175 years of the Communist Manifesto and Workers Strike in Europe

Of course, we have all read, and all do read the Communist Manifesto. As we celebrate its 175th anniversary it is imperative to not only consider how we read it, but how it reads us. For how can it be....

Read More
Israel: Occupation Technology
Werner Rugemer from Germany//12:18am, Jul 23rd '21

Israel: Occupation Technology

1. The permanent occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip by the State of Israel is the basis for the most sophisticated surveillance industry in the world. NSO Group, founded in 2009, with its Pegasus....

Read More
Proletariat of the Proletariat: Women’s Unpaid Labour
Saheli Chowdhury India//12:19pm, May 1st '23

Proletariat of the Proletariat: Women’s Unpaid Labour

The pandemic brought the spotlight on many of the wrongs of capitalism, among them the issue of unpaid labour. The term unpaid labour is generally associated with care work – care for children, the elderly,....

Read More
Chris Hani and the Release of His Murderer
Ian Beddowes Zimbabwe//9:15pm, Nov 28th '22

Chris Hani and the Release of His Murderer

The release on bail of Janusz Walus, murderer of Chris Hani, by the Constitutional Court of South Africa has created an atmosphere of outrage and incredulous disgust among the ordinary people of South....

Read More
After Victory, What Will Lula’s Foreign Policy Look Like?
Pedro Marin//9:07pm, Nov 22nd '22

After Victory, What Will Lula’s Foreign Policy Look Like?

The tenure of President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil is defined by the deforestation of the Amazon, the return of 33 million Brazilians to hunger, and the terrible governance of the country during the pandemic.But....

Read More
Ballad Of The Roses
Megan Sherman UK//11:07pm, Feb 12th '22

Ballad Of The Roses

Upon this wizened, ancient lyre I'll sing the ballad of the Roses, till I tire Each one of them a blessing true Working diligently for the life of every one of you A true Rose is a beating heart In....

Read More