Copihue Poetry

Sourav Roy, translated by Carol Blaizy D’Souza

Highway

Once there were only rivers. These highways now
People cannot cross from one side to the other
Shepherds cannot graze sheep
My husband cannot go to the bank
If there was a river, it would have swum joyously
Here a flood of cars
A truck dragging coal, a honking car
don’t halt even at the sight of a child
On top of that this six-lane to ten-lane road
continues to gobble and grow heavy
Cutting the village in two
This side only the Thakur, grocery shop
Seeks money, extracts work
That side, there is a panchayat, market, bazars
post office . . .

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I was about to ask—
and, your mother’s house?
She lifted the tar and left—
It is very far, sir
Not even a road goes there.