{"id":177556,"date":"2017-05-18T16:14:31","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T10:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=177556"},"modified":"2017-05-22T01:39:36","modified_gmt":"2017-05-21T20:09:36","slug":"as-they-unfolded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/as-they-unfolded\/","title":{"rendered":"As They Unfolded"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mahendran Thiruvarangan<\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Mahendran Thiruvarangan<\/p><\/div>\n

The warmer sun had appeared at last,
\nThe city was gliding into the summer\u2019s embrace;
\nLooking for fat-free milk on the globalized shelves,
\nThe sell by date stared at my eyes:
\nMAY 18.<\/p>\n

The mind-camera travels back in time,
\nSome eight years ago, to a nation strewn with charred bones.
\nVisuals unfurl on a television screen
\nStationed at a boutique on a hill by the singing river;
\nWords typeset by a tall bespectacled fugitive
\nShow up in black on the library\u2019s desktop;
\nIn a rented room full of unwashed clothes,
\nFriends tell friends stories of friends
\nBroken and bruised
\nAs loud cheers rock the streets where people served kiribath.<\/p>\n

A woman in her thirties and two little boys
\nCling firmly onto a tyre inflated with hope and life
\nFloating on a lagoon in the east,
\nWading through the furious waters with
\nWhat is left of their battle-scarred bodies and souls;
\nThey walk, they swim,
\nPerforming all in-between acts and others all the way
\nTo live.<\/p>\n

As the shadows fall,
\nThey emerge in a land in the west
\nWhere the wind tastes salty;
\nA long moment of silence freezes the sea and the earth,
\nThe woman adjusts the saree wound around her head
\nAnd counts the notes carefully,
\nRelief spreads across her face \u2013 there is some money left of the allowed,
\nEnough for tonight to feed the sea-sick children.
\nIt is NOVEMBER 1, 1990 in Puttalam.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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