Walking down the concrete pavement
I wonder
How remarkable these concrete facilities called ‘HOMES’
Tall, short, lean and stout
Differ in style,
Differ in value
Of course the status differs too.
Walking down the concrete pavement
I wonder,
How amazing these passing metal creatures called ‘CARS’.
Array of colour,
Variety of styles,
Variety of shapes,
Diversity of status indeed.
Walking down the concrete pavement 
I wonder
How amazing these celluloid puppets called ‘HUMANS’
Variety of colour
Range in sizes
Diversity in types
Not to mention the vast range of status.
They dance
They sing
They talk
They hug
All in different stages
All with different masks.
The string they are tied to
Is held with one hand
Called “MATERIALISM”
Walking down the concrete pavement
I search around the concrete forest
For a thing called”HUMANITY”

I wonder with aching heart.
Are those pictures true?
Are those horror leaking pictures
On the websites and newspapers
Of my people back home
And their beautiful coastal villages, true?
The beautiful memories of bright, white beaches
Blurred with the ruined images of villages and shores.
The pleasant memories of those innocent peoples
With a warm welcoming smile
Of those pretty little houses
Along the long white beaches
Surrounded by the green coconut palms and trees
Blurred with the reality.
They might be killed.
They might be injured.
The innocent faces might be turned into deformed features.
The tiny kids, by age and malnutrition, might be dead
Or have lost their limbs.
“Not a single kid should be killed by poverty”
The greatest thought hangs in their air
Unattended.
In the tarpaulin huts
Surrounded by the heat, dust and germs
The fire of hunger burning their stomachs
The fire of fear, hopelessness,
And sorrow hurting their hearts
My people accused of being a Tamil:
Accused of seeking freedom:
Accused of yearning for their rights
Are being punished.
Human rights, Humanities,
The religions of the world
Those preaches love for the foe
Just waits!!!!
Just waits!!!!!!
For what??
Until they be killed??????

Past midnight….
My eyes close exhausted
After a long fight to embrace sleep.
The last thought of that moment
“How are they doing?”
Dawn…….
Lids opened lazily
After a long fight to be closed
Bearing the burden of the dreams
Bad dreams of course
The thought of that moment
“How are they doing?”
Heart misses a beat
Exhausted
Beating like a drum whole day.
Mind freezes a moment
Totally blank.
What to think?
What is there to think indeed?
The unknown answer to my query
Creeps in to the mind and body.
Numbness……
Thoughtlessness…….
I just want to hear,
They are ok.
They are still alive.
They still have something to eat.
They can still hear despite the bangs of the shells and bombs.
They can walk with their own legs.
They can eat with their own hands.
They can still see but unfortunately the cruelty
Wide spread in front of them.
I just want to hear
My friends…….
And their kids…Ami,Kaja,Ara, Arthi,Athirai and Arooran
And all the other people are fine
Despite being a Srilankan Tamil.

We had a dream.

Beautiful with rainbow colours,

Rising from the hearts of

Hundreds of thousands of  sufferers.

It spread over the sky.

Touched the horizons.

Where ever we went

The dream spread it wings.

Bigger…….bigger……bigger

The long gone freedom,

The long gone peaceful days,

The dears departed,

The beloved demised

Watered the dreams over the decades.

Here we are…….

Again…….

At the “ZERO POINT”

Displaced and threatened.

The hope we carried,

All along the dark ages

Bearing the thorns of war,

That, kind hearts

Or nations of humanity

Or the omnipotent divine eternals

Would bring as the freedom,

We sought for decades,

Vanished.

Cluster bombs shattered the dreams

The betrayals

Of the next door neighbour

Killed the hope.

Some drop of hope

Left in the heart

For the moment to see a drop of tear,

Sympathizing us.

Shed a drop of tear,

Drop a ray of hope,

At the foot of our dying babies

Would you?????

Being on top of a ladder(litereally)

Using a heavy metal bar as a hammer

I hit very hard

Using all my strength of my thin body

And all the hatred in my tiny heart

“Bang” one for me

For being manipulated

by the external factors

“Bang” one for the world

For being unfair to all the endeavours

“Bang” one for the others

who always exploit you

To be on the top of the ladder.

Betrayals
Since born, betrayals left its marks.
The path I walked through
Bore the thorns of betrayals.
The fruit of life was never plucked
Without the scratches of thorny betrayals.
But each time,
Oozing blood and the pricking pain hurts
With the violence of a point zero bullet.
Each time I say,’ I learnt a lesson.’
At the end of the day healed scratch and consoled pain
I start the life again with the new born freshness
Full of hope and excitement.
Another version of Homo sapiens
Cross my path; with my readymade heart of compassion
I begin to believe in humanity.
Hope and confidence brought with the sunlight is
Again gone at the end of the day
With the dark of dusk covering the heart.
Midnight, heart prevails in darkness;
Nerves breakdown; 
I laugh with agony – depression
A step prior to so called mental sickness.

I woke startled
Yearning for the tick of the lizard
Under the florescent bulb
In search of a tiny insect.

On the other side of midnight,
Life was very slow,
Marked by the tick of the lizard.
Stress free, relaxed, and
The ends met smoothly with harmony.
The dangers and sorrows
Left in the mist and the dark of a dawn
Failed to spoil the hope and peace
Left in the heart.

On the other side of the midnight
I lie on the cold bed
With a chunk of nostalgia
Aching in the heart,
Killing the moments with the tick of the clock
In my effort to synchronize
My body and mind to the tick of the clock.
‘Faster, faster’ the unheard command
Chasing me to a fast pace.
The long stretched, snow covered, slippery path
Lies before me
To be walked fast;
To be worked fast;
To meet the ends of the life
Which lie in the opposite horizons.

Do they know?
Underneath the steel cover
There lies a beating heart.
Size of a strawberry;
Full of emotions; and
Wave of love
Overflowing the ridge to be ashore.

Do they know?
Underneath the steel cover
The heart leaps in search of care and love
With every beat.
The squeeze of the tiny heart
Boost the life in us.
We in turn boost the life in you,
Caring, loving and always giving.

Do they know?
Underneath the steel cover
There lies scars and puss.
The face of poverty;
The face of war;
The face of lost and death;
The face of young men shredded into pieces;
The face of women with torn cervixes;
The face of the betrayals:
The face of the cruel world
With its tightly sealed mouths.

Do they know?
The steel cover is full of scars.
Still the heart underneath beats
With the hope and great expectations
To be cared;
To be loved:
To be understood.
A caring hand to tear the steel and say,
“Oh! You are a gentle woman
As any one out there in the sophisticated world”

The day never saw the rising sun,
As the smoke covered
The souls and the sky.
History Screamed
With it’s stained pages.
Bloody roads;
Smoky sky; and
The tear filled eyes
Scarred  the history.
They ran along the streets
Screaming for help.
Once their friends now the foes
Turned deaf and aggressive.
They lost their babies in the boiling tar;
They lost their daughters to the prey hunters;
Whirling smoke demolished their assets;
They lost their hopes once and for all,
To be friend with the foes turned friends.
Being boarded on the ship,
They saw the dawn in the horizon
Of the sacred land,
Awaited their arrival
With an extended hand.
Ashore, shoeless feet felt
Assured, ‘this is the homeland’.