30

Jan

7:26pm
Luis Lazaro Tijerina USA
BURNING PYRES IN INDIA, DURING THE PLAGUE

BURNING PYRES IN INDIA, DURING THE PLAGUE

Luis Lazaro Tijerina USA//7:26pm, Jan 30th '22

“Remember me at the time of death, close down the doors of the senses and place the mind in the heart”

-The Bhagavad Gita

Night fires flicker in the thousands and thousands,

Bodies come one after another,

To be placed on funeral pyres,

There is not even time to say goodbye to the dead,

O India, O India, the raging fires that burn

in the hearts of your living.

In Delhi, the crematoriums are blocked with traffic,

Ambulances, trucks carrying innocents and those judged

to have offended the State—

All of them brought to the funeral fires.

Filtered sunlight has come upon the sultry air,

The wind breathes where those who once breathed, and can no longer breathe for companionship,

Nor to do their daily tasks,

Or take up that task of the humble warrior—

Arjuna who yearned to know glory from weapons,

Shiva bestowed upon him,

that mighty bow and arrow,

defying fate.

Even the gods must breathe

to live in the minds of men,

Oxygen that fuels life, now and forever among

the trees and banks of rivers,

Grief and despair among wooden pyres, smoke filling

the air,

The noonday sun turns into dark dusk on the mighty

Ganges River, where one bathes, and one prepares

for the final voyage.

Lord Krishna speaks not from tombs,

For his voice is the voice of the Indian people, In this time, and for all time,

And I heard from my own room in Québec City,

Words at the Ghazipur crematorium, “So many dead… It feels like if this continues, there will be no one left in Delhi.”,

I think of the ancient tragedies at Troy and Athens,

When plagues took down both invader and defender

of a homeland.

The air is pungent with the smell of smoke and fire,

If you read our blogs then why not our magazine!!!
Image
Click here to subscribe our monthly magazine

Mangoes, pomegranates with bright, orange holy flowers laying, in their own immutable grief, among human ashes.

We shall remember the sirens blaring

in the streets of Indian cities.

And how shall history remember us,

Whether we live or die in India, or some other place

of refuge?

Red bangles lay on the plagued bodies,

Masked among the now living, and the unmasked

now among the dead,

And how much did we know of each other,

Before the wearing of masks?

At Ghazipur the eternal sun has set with her dead,

And pyres are raging again, flame upon flame,

The air filled with heat, private anger, the loss

for the beloved,

The roar and crackling of flame and wood,

We, like Arjuna, we go forward,

Amid the death shrouds of every Indian City.

The Indian labor, the farmers in West Bengal,

Those homeless in Noida,

We shall not forget their grief and sorrow.

We grieve, each in his or her way,

The funeral pyres scorching what we once were,

And now, in this time of sobbing,

with empty hands, and grief in our hearts,

India, we remember you.

Luis Lázaro Tijerina, Québec City, QC

May 1st, 2021 – Burlington, Vermont, 2022

Jan Patocka on War and History
Brian Patrick Bolger//2:03pm, Jan 2nd '23

Jan Patocka on War and History

To read the Czech philosopher, Jan Patocka, one needs to dispose of concepts and categories, and approach philosophy, politics and history anew. It is the phenomenological essence – to transcend the....

Read More
Lenin’s Birthday
Luis Lazaro Tijerina USA//6:11pm, Apr 25th '22

Lenin’s Birthday

I see gray clouds guarding the skylike grim sentinels,Cold April is sublime and without rancor,The buds on the trees struggle to bloom,Spring snow has taken its ride on the turning of the roads.Traffic....

Read More
Tolpuddle Martyr Festival and Young Communist League, Britain : Review of the 2022 Festival
Nathan Russell UK//3:14am, Jul 20th '22

Tolpuddle Martyr Festival and Young Communist League, Britain : Review of the 2022 Festival

The Tolpuddle Martyr’s Festival in the South West of England’s equivalent to Durham Miner’s Gala in the North East. It also commemorates the battle Dorset agricultural workers waged against the British....

Read More
Trump or Biden: An American cliffhanger
Steven Sahiounie USA//9:50pm, Nov 4th '20

Trump or Biden: An American cliffhanger

A fierce fight is being waged in the US. The incumbent President, Donald J. Trump, is up against his rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. Yesterday was the election day, but it may take a few days to....

Read More
The International Magazine Turns 1: What a beautiful journey!
Sumedha Chatterjee Ireland//2:41am, Dec 11th '21

The International Magazine Turns 1: What a beautiful journey!

What’s the best source for unbiased, authentic take on things? Media funded by the corporates? Or looney conservative media peddling hysteria ? Trick question. None of these is the source of ‘authenticity’.....

Read More
Catalonia: Pablo Hasel And The Resurgence of the Left
Akash Chatterjee India//1:38am, Mar 4th '21

Catalonia: Pablo Hasel And The Resurgence of the Left

The pictures of mass gathering and agitations are nothing new on the streets of Catalonia. Since 2017, the streets of Catalonia have been witnessing huge mass upsurges and movements against the authoritarian....

Read More