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Warrior’s language

July 27th, 2010 by naren bedide

He

invented a new script,

the bogeyman might see it as a shoe

but it's not a shoe:

it's a secret battle tactic,

an open white paper,

the inferno that chased him

from beyond the forests of sorrow.

Perhaps no imperialist

can now dream

of dreams immune to mockery.

He doesn't understand the language of the shoe,

that the crow that lands on the Statue of Liberty

also sounds like a shoe.

Of course…

he might be pretending not to understand.

After he told the imprisoned world

that the warrior's language

is written in a million scripts,

from Hiroshima to Iraq,

all the souls shook themselves up

and are slipping on new shoes

on their fists.

They're printing their green signatures

on the white mansions that stole

greenery from the world's gardens;

with hoarsening voices

they're sharpening the language of the shoe.

'Once upon a time, a shoe..'

they're singing the story with pride.

We're used to seeing

Bush's face in

garbage cans, spittoons,

urinals and latrines but,

Muntazar al-Zaidi

seeing him as a shoe-stand is unique.

Hats off, Arab hero!

We're searching

for our old shoes too.

 

My translation of Sheikh Karimullah's Telugu poem 'viirudi bhAsha' (originally published in Prajashakti, Telugu daily, in February, 2009).

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