Three Poems
Mallika Vasugi Govindarajoo, Malaysia
Mallika Vasugi Govindarajoo has been a Malaysian high school teacher for many years and enjoys being involved in creative projects with her students. She is also a columnist for a Malaysian daily and a consultant and facilitator of their Newspaper in Education programme. She has been a member of the Asian Teachers' creative writing group since 2010. E-mail: mallika.vasugi@gmail.com
Menu
Forgive me for not writing sooner
Come and Play
My brown skin and I
Forgive me for not writing sooner
But I had to wait till the ink stopped flowing
And the nib broke on the paper splattering
Red
Forgive me for not writing sooner
But I had to wait till the blood stopped pumping
And the nurse removed the tubes finding me
Blue
Forgive me for not writing sooner
But I had to wait till the words stopped thawing
And stood frozen on their tips of
White
Forgive me for not writing sooner
But I had to wait till the clock stopped ticking
And time flew on the backs of doves turned
Black
The dark descends so come and play
The others did not want to stay
They broke my wind wheel spoiled my ride
And pushed me to the other side
Will you come, the shadows grow
There’s no one else that needs to know
That when you climb up really high
Your eyelids graze against the sky
So, come before it gets too dark
And phantoms wander in the park
It’s not the same when it is day
The dark descends so come and play.
My brown skin and I
Will scoff
At the strips
You bring to lay
On
My brown skin and I
Will sing
Of your folly
My brown skin and I
Will drip ice
On the fire
You wish to start
On
My brown skin and I
Will observe you
From afar
My brown skin and I
Will still show
Through
Despite your white silk
And snowy slips
And together we will laugh
My brown skin and I
Till our sides split open
And you have to bind us some more
With your crisp strips
And silken strips
So very crisp
So very white
So unlike
My brown skin and I
|
