Palinode VII

Palinode VII


Remember that construction
worker

run over
by the bus, setting off

a riot?
I see him

in every Indian here,
short or tall,

handsome
or devastated,

starving or sleek-headed
and satisfied.

I can’t help it.
Why can’t I

see Rajaratnam
our Deputy

Prime Minister or
the guitarist Alex

Abisheganaden instead?
I go up,

like getting on
a bus,

to every Indian here
and I ask,

are you
Sakthivel Kumaravelu?

And they say,
every one

of them, smiling,
or grimacing, or

furrowing
the brow,

Don’t you wish
for me to be him?


Reuters: Migrant workers fear massive Singapore dormitory lockdown is coronavirus timebomb.


Image: Centurion Corporation

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