ON SEEING A WHITE FLAG ACROSS A BY-ROAD (SRI LANKA)

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ON SEEING A WHITE FLAG 

 ACROSS A BY-ROAD

                                (SRI LANKA)

                                                -  Kamala Wijeratne

 

   Only that white flag

   bedraggled

   rain-sodden,

   announces your arrival.

   The sealed box

   Has defied

   all identity;

   has even stopped

   speculation

   about the way you died.

   Your mother,

   Shocked,

   Benumbed,

   Whimpers in dull agony

   Your sister

   Her years crippled

   Stoops by the dimming candle

   You, who fought for king and country

   Where are your plaudits?

   Where are the flowers?

   A bluebottle wails a panegyric

   Your comrades

   locked in struggled

   have their duty performed;

   They bought you home

   To lie in a familier loam.

   The nation has saluted you without haggle.

   Rest you in heavenly peace.

   From your neighbour’s house

   Blares the cricket news,

   They drink Coke and sit around

   the screen has gazers mesmerized

   and they loll spell-bound.

   From your compound’s end

   popular music expletes.

   Crackers explode?

   It’s the next door neighbour’s betrothal

   The reception’s at the Intercontinental.

   the bluebottle hovers lovingly.

   The candle waxes unsure

   the light ethches silhouettes,

   people file past your bier

   they will bury you at sunset.

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