LIKE CAPTURING AN IDEA

by Mary Janicke

 

abandoned
no longer important
 
a lone fence
facing south bars nothing
 
a symbol of folly
a symbol of power turned powerless
 
barriers can’t staunch the tide of humanity
that oozes around them like water
 
the migrants find their way
around the man made obstacles
 
in their search, in their dream 
of a better life

Mary Janicke is a gardener, poet, and writer. Her work has appeared in numerous journals.

THE SAGA OF AN ABANDONED PUNJABI BRIDE

by Vivek Sharma

They Married for a Life Abroad. But They Never Saw Their Husbands Again. —The New York Times, June 14, 2023.

 

Thousands of brides in India are being abandoned by their British Indian husbands after they are married. Despite this, there is evidence to suggest that Indian women are continuing to fall for British suitors. —BBC News, November 23, 2009.

In Candana, England, called Vilayat,
      My husband abides alone,
                   or with another,
he visits me sometimes in winter,
       some years, not at all,
                   and I live with his mother.

I am a middle-aged Punjabi dreamer,
      I practice English at home,
                tears smudge my notebook.
He promised me a visa and visits,
      but what if they were gambits
                 to freehire a family cook?

Jede Chadd ke chal gaye ne,                                       
         Mawan, dhiyan, khetran, gawan nu,                     
Undi raah kyun takdi aye,                                              
kyun aaun ge o tainu le jawan nu?                              

 

Those who have abandoned mothers,
         fields, daughters, villages, and gone,
Why do you wait for their return?
        Why would they take you along?

Occasionally, he calls from Vilayat,
       sweet-talker, whiskey breath,
                  I crave his love and sweat,
I rage, and he lends me an ear,
      tells me he hates it there,
                but says he hasn't made it yet,
I feel fallow, tell tales to my buffalo,
     she moos at my discontent
              and the choleric of my kith and kin,
prevents me from calling him a rogue,
     though he has left me to wither here,
             though he has left me alone.

Jede Chadd ke chal gaye ne…                                       
        Those who have abandoned us and gone…

Throughout Punjab, we are scattered,
        throughout Punjab, we are alone,
        why did you wed us?
        Why did you leave our home?
What good is the foreign penny,
       slavery of foreign tarts and pimps?
       Come back, o black-hearted,
       Come back to our sweet home.

Jede Chadd ke chal gaye ne,                                       
         Mawan, dhiyan, khetran, gawan nu,                     
Undi raah kyun takdi aye,                                              
kyun aaun ge o tainu le jawan nu?                               

Those who have abandoned mothers,
         fields, daughters, villages, and gone,
Why do you wait for them?
        Why would they return to take you along?

Your forefathers fought invaders,
       never quit, never let their land go,
kept heads high in proud turbans,
       never balked or gave their women woe.
“O Ranjheya, your banter: how do you translate it?
      Your Punjabi heart-to-heart: how do you communicate it?
Are you legally there? Are you really there?
      We are aging. We'll die. When will you ever make it?”

Jede Chadd ke chal gaye ne…        

                             Those who have abandoned us and gone…

But what can I say, had you stayed back,
       I would have urged you to leave,
when destiny calls with dollar bills,
       staying back for mud-dung is grief.
But I was wrong, marjaaniyan
      how I wish he were never gone,
I know he must be more miserable,
      at least I am in my home,

What pagli is this 'lady',
      lives in a world of make-belief,
if the bride was ever worthy,
     why would the groom ever leave,
But tell me what I must do,
     but tell me where I can go,
In this dust, I must live and die,
    maybe after death, reunite in a Canadian home.

Jede Chadd ke chal gaye ne...                                       

Those who have abandoned us and gone…

Vivek Sharma's first book of verse, Saga of a Crumpled Piece of Paper (Writers Workshop, Calcutta, 2009), was shortlisted for Muse India Young Writer Award 2011. His work in English appears in Atlanta Review, Bateau, Poetry, The Cortland Review, and Muse India, among others while his Hindi articles and verses appear in Divya Himachal (Hindi newspaper, India), Himachal Mitra, and Argala. Vivek grew up in Himachal Pradesh (Himalayas, India), and moved to the United States in 2001. Vivek is a Pushcart-nominated poet, is published as a scientist, and he lives and teaches chemical engineering in Chicago.

THE NEW WORLD ORDER

by George Salamon

Nette Reed checks on Desi Hurd, 62, near the Human Services Campus in Phoenix, where there are several major shelters, a medical center and respite centers. (Caitlin O’Hara for The Washington Post)

"The lie has become the order of the world.” Josef K. in Franz Kafka's novel The Trial

"More people in the country's biggest cities were becoming homeless, more were living outside instead of in shelters, and a record number of people from LosAngeles to Denver to  New York were dying in premature and preventable ways on the street." —The New York Times, May 13, 2023

“Nearly a quarter of a million people 55 or older are estimated by the government to have been homeless in the United States during at least part of 2019, the most recent reliable federal count available.” —The Washington Post, May 22, 2023

Josef K. uttered the lesson he learned

as he was about to die, the lesson our

homeless have not yet fully grasped:

they, like Josef K., have no right to live

because they are abandoned and weak.

George Salamon thinks most of our politicians are not eager to deal with homelessness (or poverty) because their sponsors would tell them they're wasting their money, while it's OK to throw money to the Military-Industrial Complex because it does its money-wasting for a Strong America.