SHE HATES THE ROTI-SLICES

A Poem by Deebachelvan in Tamil titled
ROTTITH-THUNDUGALAI AVAL VERUKKIRAAL

Translated into English by latha ramakrishnan

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She tells those kids holding ‘rotis’ to shun them.
Whenever they raise their food-bowel
‘rotis’ alone come to fall right in front of her eyes
The rotis rusted and frozen are smelling there always.

The whole night they had to be in the bunker
With the blood circulating dangerously
fast
“The children could have stayed behind
not wanting the rotis’’
_ So observes the mother.
None stepped outside.
In the very second steps of the bunker
the stove remained burning.
Writhing in hunger
The children were waiting for food.
Ma was preparing, one by one,
the rotis.
With the first roti roasted
One by one the children were getting their share.
Then, mother’s roti was getting roasted
On the tin-sheet.
All too easily the shell tore apart
The roti, tin and dad.
With father’s blood
the night had turned all drenched
and bloated.

In the ‘rotis’ of one and all
Blood came to spill over and scattered everywhere
The children listened to those tales about rotis and turned shell-shocked.
The children who have read
different tales in different forms
go on staring at them, not eating.
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(12.11.2009)