Merena Kandasamy @ Jaipur Festival

once my silence held you spellbound

you wouldn't discuss me.. 
because my suffering was not theoretical enough
enough enough enough
now I am theoretical enough
I'm theatrical enough

I have learned all these big big words
I can use them with abandon..
I can misuse them I can refuse them
I can throw them out


I am the renegade who can drop
these multi-syllable monsters
for stylistic, studied effect.
I am the rebel who can drop them altogether.
I invent new ones every passing day.



FYI, OED consults me. Roget's Thesaurus 
finds it tough to stay updated


I am the renegade who can drop
these multi-syllable monsters
for studied styistic effect.
I am the rebel whocan drop them altogether.
I invent new words each passing day.
and FYI, OED consult me. Roget's Thesaurus 
finds it tough to stay updated

But because I use these bedeviling words
the way you use me 
that's not me 
in that I've stopped seething in anger
that I have stopped swearing.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meena Kandasamy (1984) is an emerging poet, fiction writer, translator and activist. She is based in Chennai.
Her first poetry collection, "Touch" was published in August 2006, with a foreword by Kamala Das. Her poems, "Mascara" and "My lover speaks of Rape" won her the first prize in all India Poetry competition. Her works have been published in various journals that include The Little Magazine, Kavya Bharati, Indian Literature, Poetry International Web, Muse India, and the Quarterly Literary Review of Singapore.