TISS Guwahati- Centre for Sociology and Social Anthropology is delighted to present Eroteme Volume 3. Happy Reading!
EROTEME
Written By: Antarlina Bhattacharjee
Poetry Collection
We all are fermented fish Fermenting over years, Through Surma and Kushiyara With smell so pungent That they want to keep away From what we carry
We are long dead Our houses washed away, In floods and famines Yet our bones & blood carry the river and mud That once held us
We are fermented fish Not stagnant Always flowing across borders Negotiating with Feni Adrift in its waters, never meeting a shore Not knowing where we belong We un-belong
Yet shores claim us Our identities are brined in salts From the sweat of longing Our rootlessness preserved In jars of history And our belonging Forever fermenting
Draw a margin on the paper Said the teacher Hence, I kept drawing margins On every paper Only to learn My home is a margin too
Drawing Margins are important Margins are not Margins are ignored & forgotten But there must be a margin on every page So there is a margin And my homeland is a margin
Margin is forgotten as My homeland is We are the numbers on the margins Counted yet discarded There but not seen Fondly called marginals
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