Zombie Apocalypse Haiku

Zombies zombies all around.
Not a single human being can be found.
Apocalypse.






-Dedicated to the whole world, my place in particular, Manipur (the lost name: kangleipak)

Forget-me-not

I do not know,

I do not know,

While I perch on this branch,

Why do I gaze at the other branch

that protrudes out at the opposite side?

With this big fat vulture on my left,

yawning from time to time,

I am engulfed halfway through

Without ever its knowledge.

I do not know

I do not know

If the other side is bright and blue,

As I always imagined it’d be.

I am too exhausted to build the nest,

to search for the needed twigs.

To behold the invisible colorful metropolitan upper middle class bitch,

Running around the streets all day, barking at every passers-by,

with hardly any sound coming out,

frustrates me more and more.

Oozing out of my mouth,

is the mixture of ingredients,

purging out, pushing its way through.

I want to wake up at that other side

Where I don’t have to worry about the bullets

nor the nights, where I can frantically express myself,

puffing out several smoke rings, with lots of brownies and muffins

and thangjing, and ooti, and chagempomba.

One thursday in November 2000.

Arrival of AFSPA-

armies, guns, bullets, bombs, suspicions, killings, deaths, roar of cries, widows, orphans, widowers, rapes, molestations, bomb blasts, sound of gun shots, massacre etc. etc. etc.

 dreams, hope, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, homes, dignity, citizenship, rights, justice etc. etc. etc.

Day 1.  Hunger strike began (november 2, 2000)

Day 2. Still continuing.

Day 3. No, she hasn't eaten anything still.

Day 4. No, not even a single morsel.

Day 5. Counting

Day 6. Counting.

Day 7. Counting.

Day 8, day 9, day 10, 11, 12, 13………………………

Accused her of committing suicide. Threw her in the jail.

(yes, the armies have the right to kill her, but she doesn’t have the right to kill herself)

This is their story, this is their logic.

In the meantime,

if you remember she is still fasting, still starving.

The days are still counting……….365, 366, 367……………

700, 701, 702, 703……………………………………………………..

2000, 2001, 2002, 2003……………………………………………..

4000, 4001, 4002………………………………………………………

She is our inexorable eche sharmila.

She is a human being. She has a stomach, she gets thirsty, she gets hungry, she wants to live.

I'm Coming Back In a Month.

Dried black nail polish from my fingers,

Scattered all over
the white paper.


Scarlet blood

gushing out of 'leihao'
torments the navel.

These tiny creatures
crawls in my hair.
i don't know from where.
i suspect a friend who used my pillow
few years ago.

they suck and lick and
fuck in my head.
it was one,
and then 4
and many more now.
They deserve to die under my nails
crushed to death.

Slumber

 I stand in the shadow of the buildings waiting, waiting for him to come. It's been past 30 minutes since i'd been struggling to hold the complicated human-made metal through my slippery fingers. To put it inside the overcoat would have been a terrible risk to take. i kept waiting..................................................
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As i walked on the boulevard of music strings, i felt sick. it was moving.shaking.swinging and flowing smoothly. i jumped from on to another. but it was all the same. the same curves, the same twist, the same warp.



then i fell,

slowly

very slowly

till the abbys.

but,

there were more

deeper

and deeper

and deeper.

finally, i fell into a mass of oil, thick, black oil. i tried to breath but i couldn't. it began to ran, that mass of polluted oil. ran so fast with thousands of feet....ike a centipede. ran towards my nostril and slide down the throat to the stomach, and it dances there swriling around like the hindu god, shiva.







And it turned into a snake.yes, a snake. a cobra. wriggling out its tongue. flickering a million times. its tongue grew, rapidly. turn into fresh greenish buds of a creeper. a pumpkin, or a grapes. i dont know.

Price rise and Manipuri psyche

     The cause and effect of the price rise of the essential commodities is barely discussed formally and intellectually in public functions, seminars and media apart from gossips around the town in a personal level. People seem to be immuned to the price rise although they are aware of it. In fact, people are starting to consider this increased price as ‘normal’. Recently, the price of the fruits has been particularly increased tremendously, as much as double the price two years back. It’s probably as much the same case with other commodities too. Comparing with other states, its sky high. For instance, a kilo of grapes cost only Rs. 30 in Hyderabad while in our state, it goes as high as Rs. 240 per kilo. Imagine the difference! Most of the things, once it gets in Imphal, have a totally different price level. As long as they have not crossed the highways, the normal price remains somehow.

     There are two reasons which affect the price the most. Somewhat, it seems like these two are the only reasons. One of the two obvious reasons for the rise in price is apparently because of the illegal taxes forcefully made to pay to the traders on the highways while the goods are being transported from other states as we all know. Another is, ironically enough, created by the traders, by our own people, by ourselves. In the pretext of paying the taxes, without even giving a second thought , the owners of the goods which are being brought to the state increase the price to as much a level where they can safely lie to the customers. At a time when the price is already too high for the common people, it is indeed a sad story to tell that we continue to cheat each other every second when we get every sick opportunity.

     Rather than solving the current problem of paying the taxes on the highways together, some people are trying to make use of the problem assuming themselves very intelligent to make use of the problem when, in reality, we are practically jumping into a bigger mess in the process. It is high time that the concerned Authority looks into this open secret seriously and takes some effective actions.

    Having said this, I don’t really want to divert the processing mind from the core issue concerning the problem, illegal taxes. The so-called patriotic warriors, separatist and a few others who I have no clue what to call, are executing all sorts of illegal, undemocratic, criminal activities on the highways with zeal to its zenith. Worse, the government is turning a blind eye. Both the Central and the State Government who are responsible for the maintenance of the condition of the highways are competing each other in being silent as much possibly as they can about this unfortunate discourse. In fact, it looks like they all have some secret agenda where they are working together towards building a “better” nation. In the meantime, the common people, bereft of this knowledge, are innocently running along to the trend without diverting the course of the flow. If this really is the case, we can hardly see the bright future we so long to have. Isn’t it late enough for us to realize what should be done to change for better? Finding out the best of the solutions, the implications of this discourse, the impotency of making this happen, all must be given serious thought.