Friday, November 18, 2016

Amma's Lost Home





Amma's lost home : her stolen treasure.

I have been rinsed and soaked

Listening to her stories of lost home.

She has transferred to me

The collective trauma of her generation.

I am carrying it inside like a tree, growing despite my discomfort.

Its branches molested, leaves fallen crumbled and crushed.

Yet the tree is growing.

Despite my reluctance to carry her past

Stories of homeland are entangled and entwined on each leaf of my tree.

I, an extended version of her

Carrying inside me, the silenced voices, suppressed emotions and unanswered questions.

I have greatly inherited from her

The ability to 'hold' her memories of lost home

In the form of a melting pot,

Which burns my hand.

Still, I am holding it tight

Clinging to it like a spider on its web.

Her lost home which I have never seen

Is  part of my existence now.

What am I in store for my unborn children?

Am I going to break the pot or

Pass it onto them to be carried

Generation after generation

Bearing the title "Amma's Lost Home".

-S.Sivaji- 18/11/16, 00.36am