18 Jul 2003 Gibberish Against the War, Or, Who Is She to Talk About the SS?

The alleged killer (see below) of little Jehan Vazirani Komunyakaa — his mother, Reetika Vazirani — is said to have been an accomplished poet.

Judge for yourself her submission to the anti-Bush anthology “Poets Against the War.”

MOUTH-ORGANS AND DRUMS

fighting god it shattered belts
a hundred thousand women who
from balconies bowed palace grounds
bells and shell necklaces we buried
a night wrists chinking twenty-two
karat come down to drum level
men line the other side of the chawk
rosewater pista badam suntra
green straws bottled drinks horns blow
boxing matches everyone is
voting dice games a new parliament
says cowherders and ayahs
will also live in good houses food
will not know radiation’s dead
enzyme take your voucher I check
my lipstick dusty arms feet
no sleep in twenty-four
seven red packages over the field
I give a ring to the baker
take hints from the fish man’s tilted face
seven days as if the city would
marry of course I went forward
all four classes ate from the same
fringe of leaves tinsel wet
fingers dark light no sacrifices peace
in pearls and in rock
peace in the seas’ wilderness
in English Tamil Trigigna
and in the jetstream of ocean
peace on the SS Warmachine in
god five hundred thousand rose
all flags no one kingdom select