Tagged: trust

The Ruler

Come morning

Perched on the tree

This Bulbul and her family of two

Twitters beautiful tunes

She teaches her little ones

 

She then pecks the soil

Looking for worms

To feed her young

Come evening

She takes refuge in the tree

And by her incessant chirping

And hopping

She chases away the others

 

We have come for refuge on her tree

Everything is quiet

I take a peep

The mother, with one eye open

Watches over her brood

While they with their eyes shut tight

Doze away

She is the ruler

The-Ruler-poem-by-a sri-lankan-about-a-bulbul-mother

Kalida Lebbe

Golden July

They call it –

The Black July

 

I was hiding in a dark pit,

Shivering, shaking, sobbing –

Terror howling inside me

 

Young – only 16

Two hands took me out –

Soothing voice

Two warm arms embracing me

 

I was shoved into a car –

Taken to a mansion –

Fast, fast, fast

 

Behind the kitchen slab,

Hiding, shivering.

Big knock on door

“Are you hiding Tamils?

Sinhala Traitors!”

“Naa naa Kavuruth naa”

“No, no, no one here” –

Retrieved from behind the slab

 

A beautiful lady –

Brimming with love –

Holding me –

Calming my fears

Oh, Golden July…

Sri Lanka black july

I remember a visit to Jaffna

In the month of April, 1983

 

Rumbling of hostile undercurrents,

Feelings of strange unease

Seeping through our communities

Did not prevent our hosts

From inviting us, nor us from accepting,

For between us flowed

Only currents of friendship and trust

we make in chatempanada.com.

 

Memories linger of vegetarian meals

Served hot from the stove

By our dutiful hostess

First to her husband, then to us

sri-lanka-tamil-food

Sri Lankan Tamil peoples’ food