INDUNIL MADHUSANKHA - POEMS

Indunil Madhusankha is currently an undergraduate reading for a BSc Special Degree in Mathematics at the Faculty of Science of the University of Colombo. Even though he is academically involved with the subjects of Mathematics and Statistics, he also pursues a successful career in the field of English language and literature as a budding young researcher, reviewer, poet and content writer. Basically, he explores the miscellaneous complications of the human existence through his poetry by focussing on the burning issues in the contemporary society. Moreover, Indunil’s works have been featured in several international anthologies, magazines and journals.
 

                          I See Her Hands
 

I see her hands
when she dearly holds
mine with hers
She has cold, but lingering hands
So, I can still feel the very warmth
The skin shrivelled and
clustered with lifeless wrinkles
They have a pinkish hue
and a scatter of dark red spots
Her aged hands are the portrait
of a great life story
daubed with enormous sweat and tears
The reflection of a triumphant odyssey
full of love, courage and perseverance
and also a strength,
a staggering strength,
so lavish to enliven generations
 
 
 

                 Hold Your Envy at Bay  
 

 This breathtaking land of our lion race, 
 impeccable both in shape and structure
 Yet the perilous thunder of western sky posing threats
 with their obnoxious comments,
 since their jealousy is for good raging
 
 Needless to make an extra attempt
 in portraying the vulgarity of your people
 The long list of pestilence needs pages incalculable   
 None of the citizens in the world
 will delete from their memory,
 the irreversible blot to humankind
 that the notorious war-mongers have committed
 And also the black mark earned
 by their ravenous greed for human flesh
 Why should we “behold”?
 The members of our race have not formed
 such an “unbroken line” of follies
 
 Yet it still lingers as a conundrum,
 why those western scholars
 prove to be fools
 in their evaluation of the human nature
 You must not forget that
 throughout the known history of mankind,
 men and women with such blunders
 have always been in existence
 They are the inborn traits of mankind
 depending not on the culture they belong to
 
 Definitely apparent is the intention of theirs
 in raising these rotten motifs
 That is their envy
 Misanthropes they are,
 upholding chauvinism
 My heart swells with justifiable elation
 to remind you that the Buddha,
 the greatest teacher of all 
 has taught us all the values
 leaving no shortage
 Keep thoroughly in your mind
 the incident of Pānadurāwādaya                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
 
 Robert Knox, your own fellow, 
 despite a western,
 we are willingly ready to bow him
 for sans the least hesitation,
 the wiser man understood
 the uniqueness of our tradition,
 and gave it an impressive literary acclaim
 Even your western luminaries
 were glued to the spot
 with open mouthed wonder,
 witnessing the ancient creations of our race
 Unmistakable are the moments
 the European continent vibrated
 in a moment's earthquake
 when the Portuguese were defeated by our men
 Nor are you qualified enough to drill
 our irrefutably glorious lion race
 Never point out a finger at our nation,
 for four fingers will naturally be pointed at you
 So you are the shameless
 
 What an unbearable shame
 that there is a rootless lot
 born in and fed by Mother Lanka, 
 but embracing the westernized elite
 and cracking jokes at our prestigious cultural heritage
 Our poetry testifies
 they are the fans of sea,
 yet feeding on the river
 That absolutely is the killing embarrassment of ingratitude!
 
 At least we can write fiction,
 Yet, your history,
 felicitous only to write tragedies
 
 We are bound to write another golden page
 in the chronicle of our unmatched civilization,
 vanquishing of terrorism
 There are neither lies nor hyperbole
 Our voyage is going on
 as long as the sun and the moon
 glow in the sky
 
 So hold your envy at bay.
 
 
 
                      Fading Beauties of Youth
​
 (Composed in cessation of the spread of AIDS) 
 
 Cascading beauties of mellow youthfulness
 overflowing from her physical frame
 Enthralled by her carnal fancies and
 flamboyant existence,
 dressed in shimmering vermillion garments,
 sowed the seeds of her own destruction
 
 Ripeness of her soul,
 a creamy milky chocolate pudding
 Sought for the fantasies and delicacies
 in uncontrollable intoxication
 Regardless of the truth behind the rosy side of life
 that the Enlightened One,
 the Lord Buddha once preached
 
 The tormenting pain of abject poverty
 compelling her to walking the streets
 Carried away by the appetite for bags of cash
 Reached the very heights of sensuality
 
 Seductive ecstasies of youthful desires
 The fever of adolescence and nihilism
 Vivaciously exulting young lass in the heyday of life
 groping in the darkness of overflowing lust
 
 Now suffering the grinding decease, HIV/AIDS,
 an outburst of physical, mental and moral ailments
 Desolately dumped in her dark isolate dwelling,
 with her closed face, a cancer for the society
 
 Mellifluous music, now ringing in her ears in utter silence
 Curse on the ephemeral enjoyment of life
 Mercilessly thrown away even from the brothel
 The burst of her scream rattles the windows
 
 The new born fresh bud in blooming beauty
 Despite the very virginity of the soul
 even before seeing the light of the world
 faced with the crippling plague
 
 Excruciating monster of AIDS, with no mercy,
 tattering and snatching the dreams of life
 She suffers, nagged by the splitting emotional injuries
 and the heap of painful sicknesses
                                                                                                                                                                              The day and night both alike for her
 Swarms of young birds now flying away from her
 that once beguiled to her magnetic grace
 and enjoyed her as if she was a juicy cherry
 
 Glancing at the dying sun, its falling rays,
 gradually becoming pale and soft in brilliance
 She suffers until her body slips slowly into the earth
 just as the fading sun dips below the far horizon.