O Africa, the lost Eden of our common ancestors.
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I must
– “koyle ki khan se hi hira nikalta hai”*
– For Africa, the lost Eden of our common ancestors
and yet I burn, for dazzle I must.
My black skin hides, within, an anger, a fire,
even when reduced to ash, smolder I must.
Do not play with me, your hands I’ll soil too,
I was raised in darkness, dye black everything I must.
My tongue moves in hearth, my voice is loudest on pyre,
to show what I really am, martyr myself I must.
A piece, my own, glittered, a piece caught your fancy,
a piece sells for millions, for pennies sell I must.
I am amorphous you say, its my way of existence you condemn,
to be a John of Arc again, perform on stake I must.
I’ve no spark within me, sans spark I’m a stone,
such is Vivek’s destiny, to live, first die I must.
Note*: Allusion to common Hindi saying: Diamond comes from the same mine as coal.
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Vivek Sharma’s collection The Saga of a Crumpled Piece of Paper (63 Poems, English) was published by Writers Workshop, Calcutta in 2009. His work appears in Atlanta Review, Bateau, Poetry, The Cortland Review, Kartika Review, among others. He writes columns and verses for Divya Himachal (Hindi newspaper in India) and his research is published in science journals. Vivek grew up in Himachal Pradesh, a state in the Himalayas, India, and moved to United States to pursue graduate studies in 2001. Vivek participated in Summer Seminar for Writers in Sarah Lawrence College in 2006, 2007 & 2008. Vivek is a Pushcart nominated poet and is currently a post-doctoral research associate in mechanical engineering at MIT, Cambridge, MA.
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