By Manash Bhattacharjee

Commandant Guevara

Man more than memory
memory more than man.

A scar without a wound
in the masks of history.

He was no engineer of lies.

He was no head
in the line of chairs, statues, betrayals.

O’ how he would have roared
before bullets meant for the guts.

How his smile hit the floor
as his blood went up in smoke.

With untied hands and eyes
he was a little luckier than Lorca.

A lion heart he yet witnessed
the cowardice of men.

****

Irony

The name which evokes
memories of Auschwitz is
not Jerusalem.

That name is Palestine.

***

Republic Day

The nation’s
beggars
sell
the nation’s
flag
in tattered
streets
to
the nation’s
capital.
The buyer
wants
the light
green.
The seller
wants it
red.
Unequal
hands
transact
in
reverse
haste.
The flags
flutter
without irony.

– Manash Bhattacharjee is a poet, writer and scholar from New Delhi, India. He contributed these poems to PalestineChronicle.com.