Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of the disturbing shootings that took place at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin. To continue with the healing process, try reading this poem which pays beautiful tribute. Waheguru Waheguru Waheguru please god let these letters reach you let nothing i feel today get lost i encircle the whole page the whole world with ik ongkar there is one/ there is one/ there is one creator i affix august 5, 2012 on the top corner of my enveloped heart 1. in perfect calligraphy i address letterhead to a 1920s p.o. box astoria, oregon dear bhagat singh thind: american soldier, were you cremated as our Gurus laid in law did your children throw your ashes into the waters of this land? why haven’t the men drunk your bones a billion bits of you burnt into a silt which flows hudson mississippi rio grande colorado sacramento your grandchildren still cross the pacific we gather your turban cloth wrap a new day on our head your dastaar a buoy every time we sink in this ocean we invoke your name call you our country forever indebted 2. first-class airmail to mesa, arizona september 15, 2001 respected balbir singh sodhi: father i see you again in the darkness your eyes change color under the constellations the night is a crematorium i see your beating heart glow in angina as it grows old from this my father enclosed with this letter we send six more to you our singhs and kaur climb the nishaan sahib flagstaff we whisper Chaupai Sahib together below Rakhanhaare father what more since we last met your flowers you planted outside your gas station bloom we water diligent grow fields of petals for five bullets father we miss you 3. i release one thousand paper cranes brother birds, please deliver this internal telegram with care dearest of dear sadh sangat ji: i travel the 5th udaasi i see no stranger in this country when i was born my mother carried me to richmond hill new york gurdwara to discover the first letter of my name as grown woman i perch above pacific watch from el sobrante, california gurdwara as fog rolls under golden gate’s spine at sunset i recite rehraas toward an angel island 100 year udaasi and i have traveled the whole country hyphen is a language i lost when the door to the Guru arrived as asteroid from amritsar to stockton Mian Mir put down the first brick in the americas too walt whitman spoke to 10 Nanaks left his four directioned pairs of shoes outside stockton’s darbar shoes for us to borrow in oak creek Bhai Taru Singh Ji’s scalp lives again an eternal hair which grows from 1907 bellingham tied into the topknot of wisconsin our kanga combs this hair with media soundbites hair which absorbs perfume of flags a mane we sometimes fear to wash lakhi shah vanjara, mehar karo give us your brave flame today make our roof known as only nirbhao nirvair hot winds blow away with 5th Nanak’s naam we alight this fire beneath us the first shaheed a heat which ignites miri piri for when they come for us again 4. telegraph delivery to: 1982 detroit, michigan dear vincent chin: i wonder if you won’t mind my forward nature but i love you in english i love you in punjabi i love you in arabic i love you in persian i love you in urdu i love you in japanese i love you in chinese i love you in all accents i love you in all head coverings i love you in all mosques i love you in manzanar i love you in all other the most important words to know in any language: i love you i learned this from you there is no mistake in i love you in any language to your skull, i love you to the baseball bat, i love you to the bullet, i love you it’s not your country, i love you they will come for me, i love you i love you 5. parachute bricks of kirtan sohila all over this earth stamps still wet with cold blood dear global family: i am home sick the crowds here are no different how many oceans separate the asiatic exclusion league and india’s r.s.s. delhi 1984 the city retches tosses tires diesel on turbans lights a match the smell of burning scalps like expected sunrise the crowd watches men wrap native girls on lake superior in trafficked blankets as small-pox ships dock for fuel the reservation swells with these ghosts she wanted it, the crowd hisses sarbat da bhala to hiroshima and nagasaki radiation burns like a metastasis which chases cells from the cities’ face her teeth and raw gums survive at least she can still eat, the crowd says this ink to the girls who never made it into the picture naked or otherwise as napalm spills sky what a great image, the crowd proclaims one thousand churning cries for a small town in a small place insane foot soldier with as many bullets as he can carry children and women and turbans all target massacre massacre/ terrorist terrorist oak creek, wisconsin a sister’s embrace to panjwai, afghanistan the crowd claps 6. please forward: to the 50 states/ the white house/ all territories/ the flagged patch on the moon america: enter the gurdwara door is open our bare feet like cracked glass our covered heads bulletproof from ego we turn our backs on bellingham build our gurdwaras from post traumatic cinder of bombed birmingham black church nina simone sings tera bhaana meetha laage to tune of mississippi goddamn gunpowder lines noses of children left behind wailing mummy papa we will never forget you ‘the love that forgives’ a lullaby which sears obedient into a bittering lemon i stand half mast, america i grieve for my future son, america i grieve for all nights, america i grieve for all nights Waheguru Waheguru Waheguru -preeti kaur
Posted on: Sun, 04 Aug 2013 17:00:01 +0000
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