THE SURRENDERED CHILD OF THE ARRESTED MOTHER

There lay many a countenance
in *Nandhik-Kadal
In cyanide cups
the children drank milk
The mothers with guns
went past carrying kids.

All the godowns of Mullivaaikaal
close down.
From there corpses and their children
surface and come.


With the Sea captured, the sand getting displaced
is hauled away by the Sea
The barbed wires welcome
wearing the faces of indivisible countries..


With the region released
turning into the air-conditioned rooms of Death,
in the songs of torture
the night keeps reverberating.
With the great land turning into burial ground
the refugee camps are fast approaching

The mother had been arrested
The child had surrendered.
The gun stands between the two.
The thorny wire spreads as the attire.
The dead bodies come to lie in one corner
of Nandhik-Kadal.
Sri Lanka finishes devovouring Eelam.
_____________________
17 May2009
Thanks: AMRUTHA, JUNE 2009

A Poem in tamil by Deebachelvan titled
கைது செய்யப்பட்ட தாயின் சரணடைந்த குழந்தை
Translated into English by Latha Ramakrishnan