Poems by K.Srilata

Who is Responsible for the Same?*
 
They grow slowly, the children from these parts.
Some have traded cricket bats for crutches
and the awareness of a game lost.
Only the sense of poison
has won.
It stands now,
a perennial tree,
its violent roots
striking into the defeated soil
year on year,
its wild, barren branches,
flapping like witches
around a cauldron
from which leaks
the continuing despair of mothers.
 
*The title is drawn from the recorded narrative of Dr.Satpathy, forensic expert (archived in the Remembering Bhopal Museum)
                                                                                                                  
 
 
Milestones
Did she cry
at birth?
What was her birth cry like?
Apgar score?
Did she suck?
When did she turn over?
Creep?
Crawl?
Walk?
At what ages exactly?
 
When did she start to talk?
Did she make eye contact?
Was she friendly or shy?
Eating habits?
Puberty?
Bed-wetting?
Nightmares?
Tantrums?
Did she come when called?
At once?
What about classroom behavior?
Playground behavior?
Is she fidgety?
 
When did she start to read?
When did she start to write?
Any reversals?
What about pen grip?
 
Now, think carefully.
Did she ever have trouble with shoelaces?
Could she tell left from right?
School performance?
 
Tell me now about her mother.
What was she like?
School performance?
Could she tell left from right?
Shoelaces?
Now, think carefully.
 
Pen grip?
Reversals?
When did she start to write?
When did she start to read?
 
Was she fidgety?
Playground behavior?
Classroom behavior?
Did she come when called?
At once?
Tantrums?
Nightmares?
Bed wetting?
Puberty?
Eating habits?
Was she friendly or shy?
Did she make eye contact?
When did she start to talk?
 
When did she walk?
Crawl?
Creep?
Turn over?
At what ages exactly?
Apgar score?
What was her birth cry like?
Did she cry
at birth?
 
Now, think carefully.

About the poet

A poet and fiction writer, Srilata is a Professor of English at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras. Srilata was a writer-in-residence at the University of Stirling, at Sangam house and at the Yeonhui Art Space in Seoul. Her debut novel Table for Four, long listed in 2009 for the Man Asian literary prize, was published by Penguin. Srilata has three collections of poems, Writing Octopus (Authorspress, 2013), Arriving Shortly (Writers Workshop, 2011) and Seablue Child (Brown Critique, 2002). She also co-edited the anthology Rapids of a Great River: The Penguin Book of Tamil Poetry. Her work has been featured in The BloodAxe Anthology of Indian Poets, The Harper Collins Book of English Poetry, Wasafiri, Recours au Poeme, Caravan, Fulcrum, The Little Magazine, Kavya Bharati and in two anthologies published by the Sahitya Akademi. Srilata has been a participating writer at the Seoul International Writers Festival, the Hindu Lit for Life, Kala Ghoda, Hyderabad Literary festival and the Poetry with Prakriti festivals.