Kuma Raj Subedi
Thus is the plight-
Vibrant wedded youths march
Towards foreign lands
Like a colony of ants
For a dream of contentment
Setting fires to domestic dreams!
Oldies’ hearts like a drought split land
Despises desperately downpour of memories
Utterly unable to uphold delusion laden brains!
Wives, in fountain, fill pitchers with dreams of reunion
Until rolled tears splash
Tranquil waters like hailstones in a lake
Wetting pillows when the world is asleep
Fantasise caresses till the ominous Cock a doodle do-
Unfolds new hardships reveries!
Children’s envisaged shelter
Drowns like a failed paper-boat-
Decorated with flowers and crimson
Adorned dream-coffin returns home
Defeated waging wars of wages
Assassinating dreams of the dreamers!
[Subedi is an ESL lecturer at Tafe SA, Adelaide South Australia]
Thankyou. A powerful invocation of what every Nepali family, every mother, feels. That suffering is surely the stuff of dreams. Is it the same in some ways for those white collar migrants to Australia and US as to Malaysia and Qatar? Does this poem speak to them too?
Thank you Aziz for reading this stuff. Once any work is out in public, the author’s intention and explanation do not have much meaning compared to readers’ response to it. You are free to understand in a way you like.