Jasmines

One morning I saw
five-petal flower- so pure,
There were three flowers in one bunch
Two were bloomed
One was yet to bloom
They danced in the gentle breeze
Like a loving couple with their babe
I was lost in the heaven of bliss
In the evening I peeped them again
Oh god cupid cursed them
They have gone forever
In a fatigue clamour noon
I just close my eyes
They trespass into my heart
With sweet fragrance of it
I let it be..? Santhushti Ekanayake In the poem, the poet portrays just blossomed Jasmines. The poet says they are pure and soft care-free dance in gentle breeze. However, there are dangers out there as in life. Sometimes, young lives will be snuffed out leaving only the sweet fragrance.

-IT

My Sri Lanka

My Sri Lanka is an arranged marriage,
I cannot divorce her.
I cannot just leave her behind
Like a postal bride.
Sri Lanka follows me like my shadow.

Sri Lanka is the blood in my veins
It nourishes my body
Giving me power to think, cry, love
And even make me laugh.

My Sri Lanka is an airport
Where the planes from East and West meet
In my tear-drop shaped island.

My Sri Lanka is a library
Of tragedies and comedies
In popular novels in several volumes, written
By black, white, green and yellow writers
With a postcolonial slant.

For a poet, it is a rotten egg,
But for me it is the staple food
Nourishing every molecule in my body.

Sri Lanka is my resting place
When people in my home country give me labels,
Question my accent, ask my name, and stab my back.

Sri Lanka follows me like my shadow. Sunil Govinnage The poet in a simple diction explains the profound love the poet has for his motherland Sri Lanka. The cultural baggage which has become a part of life is inseparable as 'an arranged marriage'. The poet, using metaphors in a most economical manner portrays Sri Lanka with its strengths and weaknesses. As the poet encounters 'cultural otherness' on almost every day basis, the motherland Sri Lanka follows him like a shadow. This is one of the evocative poems that manifests in no uncertain terms in one's loss of motherland and the concept of cultural otherness.

- Indeewara Thilakarathne

A Tear

A tear blotched the words
Struggling,
To be free of the pen
A tear of pain, sorrow
And heart wrenching grief.
A tear that had once
Fallen for joy,
And love for a fellow human being.
A tear of hope and freedom
Now falls for
A hollow, a space, a vacuum
Deep inside a young heart.
Once, that tear could smile,
Could laugh, could love...
Now,
It can only weep.
Only speak,
Of cruelty, torture,

Of hours of terror.
The ears ringing,
Once again,
With the blasts and bursts
Of gunfire.

A tear,
Glistening with horror
At the sight of blood,
At the taste of ... war.

Those eyes,
See nothing but blood.
Those ears,
Hear nothing but guns.
That tear,
Falls for nothing
But pain, sorrow and
heart wrenching grief.
A tearful heart
Crying against the cruel war,
That destroyed its love
And betrayed its trust. - Naomi. R Asuka R Here the poet describes the myriad of emotions that tears represent. It may be sorrow, heart wrenching grief or a betrayal that is ingrained in tears. But it can also be tears against war

- IT