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Lot’s Wives
Pireeni Sundaralingam
Sri LankaGALLERYCONVERSATION
2003 marked the twentieth anniversary of the Sri Lankan civil war, a war that has led to sixty thousand deaths and a million people...
looking back at our burning cities
watching the smoke rise
from our empty homes.

Such death. The smell
of justice
drifting on the burnt wind.

It was quiet then. And cold.

We heard their cries,
the caged birds clawing
at their perches, our daughters
naked in the grasping crowd.
We saw it all,
saw the fire like rain,

saw our tears track
hard, white veins down our bodies,

saw the brine crawl
from salt-cracked skin.

Now, restless in the empty night
we find we stand there still,
alone on the hill’s black belly.
We, the forgotten,
whose names were swallowed by God.

***

2003 marked the twentieth anniversary of the Sri Lankan civil war, a war that has led to sixty thousand deaths and a million people sent into diaspora. Through telling my story I hope to tell the stories of all the other Sri Lankan women of my generation who have seen nothing other than war and exile in their lifetimes.
watching the smoke rise
from our empty homes.

Such death. The smell
of justice
drifting on the burnt wind.

It was quiet then. And cold.

We heard their cries,
the caged birds clawing
at their perches, our daughters
naked in the grasping crowd.

We saw it all,
saw the fire like rain,

saw our tears track
hard, white veins down our bodies,

saw the brine crawl
See Full Story »
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