{"id":84341,"date":"2013-04-28T00:46:23","date_gmt":"2013-04-27T19:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=84341"},"modified":"2013-04-30T02:35:32","modified_gmt":"2013-04-29T21:05:32","slug":"an-old-man-sits-under-a-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/an-old-man-sits-under-a-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"An Old Man Sits Under A Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Basil Fernando<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Basil Fernando<\/p><\/div>\n

An old man sits under the shade of a tree<\/p>\n

On the slab of a grave.<\/p>\n

He is no sage<\/p>\n

Running away from world,<\/p>\n

He was the grave digger.<\/p>\n

Now in retirement,<\/p>\n

Returning to his familiar world.<\/p>\n

The only interludes are the night visits<\/p>\n

Back home for his drink, dinner and sleep.<\/p>\n

In his dreams he moves into the underworld<\/p>\n

Of Hades, Lucifer or Yama,<\/p>\n

Sometimes sees the faces of those<\/p>\n

He buried.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cemetery is place of ceremonies<\/p>\n

Of emotions, a powerful world,<\/p>\n

Where love is dramatized<\/p>\n

And people become real.<\/p>\n

Tears, loud cries, explosive words,<\/p>\n

Flowers and candles, trying to express<\/p>\n

Language of the heart.<\/p>\n

Unforgettable cries of mothers<\/p>\n

When the young are buried,<\/p>\n

Children saying goodbye<\/p>\n

to their mothers and fathers,<\/p>\n

A place where intellect is silent<\/p>\n

Or confused.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Then there are unusual times<\/p>\n

When men in uniform<\/p>\n

Come with gallons of illicit liquor,<\/p>\n

And loads of wounded dead bodies.<\/p>\n

Preparing rapid fires<\/p>\n

In the dead of the night,<\/p>\n

To bury all the secrets,<\/p>\n

As uniformed men<\/p>\n

Guards the gates.<\/p>\n

As the days go by,<\/p>\n

Visiters come,<\/p>\n

Asking many questions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Between heaven, hell and earth<\/p>\n

With Angels, devils and spirits<\/p>\n

Sits this old man<\/p>\n

His minds confused with facts<\/p>\n

Fabrications and fantasies,<\/p>\n

Images of thousands of faces,<\/p>\n

Confused about fate, faith<\/p>\n

Truth, justice and despair,<\/p>\n

Hypocrisy, disorder and fear<\/p>\n

And tales of a thousand varieties<\/p>\n

Crowding in his mind.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He knows more than historians,<\/p>\n

Reporters, journalists<\/p>\n

Judges or jurors<\/p>\n

In the images that appear,<\/p>\n

Disappear and reappear<\/p>\n

In this mind<\/p>\n

Are the truths<\/p>\n

World does not wish<\/p>\n

To know.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I then photographed beauty<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Who are you?<\/p>\n

I asked a bird<\/p>\n

Posing\u00a0 for a photograph.<\/p>\n

I am beauty,<\/p>\n

The bird told me.<\/p>\n

Are you from heaven<\/p>\n

Or earth?<\/p>\n

I asked\u00a0 the bird.<\/p>\n

I have wings and feet,<\/p>\n

I eat and sing,<\/p>\n

The bird told me.<\/p>\n

Are you an angel?<\/p>\n

I asked.<\/p>\n

No, the angels<\/p>\n

Were modeled after me,<\/p>\n

The bird replied.<\/p>\n

I then photographed,<\/p>\n

Beauty.<\/p>\n

*Basil Fernando published his first volume of poems A New Era to Emerge in 1972. Since then, he has published several volumes of poems in English and two collections in Sinhala. His poems have appeared in several Sri Lankan and international anthologies. His poems have been translated into many Western and Asian languages. A translated anthology of his poems was published in Malayalam entitled Sundaramaithry. In 1983, he and Richard Zoysa shared the first prize for poetry in New Ceylon Writings, published by Professor Yasmin Gunaratne.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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