by Indran Amirthanayagam
in every field, on every street,
booming, blooming, blasting,
blathering, while fishmonger
booming, blooming, blasting,
blathering, while fishmonger
and greengrocer, student
and priest, run home until
walls shudder and windows
crack and shrapnel rains
on the silver, the cats,
the children, oh the children
bleeding and screaming.
What absolute lack of
foresight, no bunkers,
no caverns, no metro
tunnels close by to wait
until bombers and drones
return to base, nowhere
to hide. In the fields,
farmer on a tractor, another
with a hoe; tally ho,
fellow, go now to your God.
We the executioners
rule the skies.
War did not break
like a pimple
or rash
or pus-ridden
bacterial flesh.
A human being
ordered bombers
and bombs
to launch.
A human being,
otherwise known
as a leader,
a democrat,
of what’s otherwise
seen as a democracy.
And by the way,
the State is me.
Indran Amirthanayagam has just published his translation of Kenia Cano’s Animal For The Eyes (Dialogos Books, 2025). Other recent publications include Seer (Hanging Loose Press) and The Runner's Almanac (Spuyten Duyvil). He is the translator of Origami: Selected Poems of Manuel Ulacia (Dialogos Books). Mad Hat Press published his love song to Haiti: Powèt Nan Pò A (Poet of the Port). Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant (BroadstoneBooks) is a collection of Indran's poems. He edits The Beltway Poetry Quarterly and helps curate Ablucionistas. He hosts the Poetry Channel on YouTube and publishes poetry books with Sara Cahill Marron at Beltway Editions.
