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Saturday, August 09, 2025

ART AFTER GENOCIDE

by Indran Amirthanayagam




When distant bombs 
and bread denied 
leave no trace 
abroad except 
in heart and mind 
of reader and writer

where do we turn
in our countries
of refuge for 
the next impulse
to compose? To whom 
shall we address 

our song?
And should 
we eat and love,
or fast and be 
silent?
For how long?


Indran Amirthanayagam writes a Substack. His publications include El bosque de deleites fratricidas ( RIL Editores), Seer (Hanging Loose Press),The Runner's Almanac (Spuyten Duyvil), Powèt Nan Pò A: Poet of the Port (Mad Hat), and Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant (Broadstone Books). He is the translator of Kenia Cano’s Animal For The Eyes (Dialogos Books) and Origami: Selected Poems of Manuel Ulacia (Dialogos Books). He edits The Beltway Poetry Quarterly, hosts the Poetry Channel on YouTube, and publishes poetry books with Sara Cahill Marron at Beltway Editions.