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Evening
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...
because night is a place through which shadows stalk
and a dynasty of our ghosts still wanders
because I am the daughter of your only daughter
when our sons are all dead and the names
of our living have been scattered,
you will weave these Dark Time prayers for me
pour water, biting like steel, through my fingers
place ash, sacred, between my eyes.
Grandmother,
holding a house whose rooms have been emptied,
where the heirlooms have vanished
and the photographs of our men
are garlanded with silence,
you will light these camphor lamps for me,
chant mantras that pull down planets,
name stars that will stay faithful,
following my footsteps
even into exile

***
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. I also seek to relate the universality of our experience.
and a dynasty of our ghosts still wanders
because I am the daughter of your only daughter
when our sons are all dead and the names
of our living have been scattered,
you will weave these Dark Time prayers for me
pour water, biting like steel, through my fingers
place ash, sacred, between my eyes.
Grandmother,
holding a house whose rooms have been emptied,
where the heirlooms have vanished
and the photographs of our men
are garlanded with silence,
See Full Story »
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