Preparations of War
by Kunwar Narayan (trans. Vinay Dharwadker)
After thousands of years
like the same beaten-up question
the same beaten-up man is still being asked
"Who are you?
Where do you live?
What's your name?"
The prisoner who patrols
a motionless octagonal cell
holds three guards captive at the same time.
Everywhere outside
a forest of iron bars has spread its stranglehold
like a magnet's invisible lines of force.
And this is the solid proof of the success
of a massive buildup of arms
that as soon as we have a gun in our hands
enemy heads
begin to appear all around us.