A DIFFERENT HISTORY
Great Pan is not dead;
he simply emigrated
to India.
Here, the gods roam freely,
disguised as snakes or monkeys; *omnipresent/ ubiquitous
every tree is sacred
and it is a sin
to be rude to a book.
It is a sin to shove a book aside
with your foot,
a sin to slam books down
hard on a table,
a sin to toss one carelessly *anaphora/ emphasising the arbitrary declaration
across a room. of things being a sin
You must learn how to turn the pages gently
without disturbing Sarasvati,
without offending the tree
from whose wood the paper was made. *structure= freedom of gods/ erraticness of Indian priorities
Which language
has not been the oppressor’s tongue? * semantic field of suffering
Which language
truly meant to murder someone? *not the fault of the language
And how does it happen
that after the torture,
after the soul has been cropped
with a long scythe swooping out
Great Pan is not dead;
he simply emigrated
to India.
Here, the gods roam freely,
disguised as snakes or monkeys; *omnipresent/ ubiquitous
every tree is sacred
and it is a sin
to be rude to a book.
It is a sin to shove a book aside
with your foot,
a sin to slam books down
hard on a table,
a sin to toss one carelessly *anaphora/ emphasising the arbitrary declaration
across a room. of things being a sin
You must learn how to turn the pages gently
without disturbing Sarasvati,
without offending the tree
from whose wood the paper was made. *structure= freedom of gods/ erraticness of Indian priorities
Which language
has not been the oppressor’s tongue? * semantic field of suffering
Which language
truly meant to murder someone? *not the fault of the language
And how does it happen
that after the torture,
after the soul has been cropped
with a long scythe swooping out
