This is the green that has seen one world end and another begin many times over many years: a kickstart show in the thirties, sunrise warplanes rebuffed at Easter, bare heads in ’56, bowed, beaten, unbent. Then, three years ago, those fused rucksacks turned it all inside out through a fault that at its core [...]

Plus

Gall Face Green 2022

Thoughts from award-winning writer Romesh Gunesekera
View(s):

This is the green that has seen

one world end and another begin

many times over many years:

a kickstart show in the thirties,

sunrise warplanes rebuffed at Easter,

bare heads in ’56, bowed, beaten, unbent.

Then, three years ago, those fused rucksacks

turned it all inside out

through a fault that at its core is our own.

Bingeing on amnesia

is a habit hard to break.

The word has spread, the crowds are here.

Today flags, signs, hashtag anthems

leap from screen to screen, neck to neck,

head to heart, hope to despair and back.

The many are one,

you sing, hands clasped,

in a crisis finding

the conscience that will forever define you.

In time to come, you will remember

this was the day the impossible was possible,

the ineffable turned #effable,

and you and I saw in ourselves

the blame we’d painted on each other.

Late united, we wait for the sun to sink,

release the green flash that promises

wishes will be fulfilled — if not this night, then

tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow.

Three words now the big shout

against the kaak, kaak, kaak of crows

who’ve trashed not just this generation

but the one before and the one that comes after.

Will those who thickened their purses, their bellies,

now creep behind the cortege,

offering new inducements

to fill more hidden coffers?

Will their freshly minted avatars

find an older drumbeat

under the jubilation?

Imagine if a misguided pair

raised a child to be a king,

forgetting the line that divides the gifted from the sly.

See him grow insatiable; eat not only the hand that feeds him,

but the arm, the entire body. First one then the other parent,

the house, the heavenly land — the whole lot,

including, in a final act of gluttony, himself

starting with the left foot, bare & burnt,

then the right, moving up and in and out

until there is nothing left to swallow but the tongue

that in our innocence we had thought was ours.

Could it ever be?

Tomorrow’s roll call,

will tell only half the story: of buds bruised, awoken.

The other half is the struggle

for a cleaner future

that appears now

locked — but not, we pray, forever.

This is the green that has seen

one world end and another begin.

 

Share This Post

WhatsappDeliciousDiggGoogleStumbleuponRedditTechnoratiYahooBloggerMyspaceRSS

Searching for an ideal partner? Find your soul mate on Hitad.lk, Sri Lanka's favourite marriage proposals page. With Hitad.lk matrimonial advertisements you have access to thousands of ads from potential suitors who are looking for someone just like you.

Advertising Rates

Please contact the advertising office on 011 - 2479521 for the advertising rates.