The Deadmen and Other Poems

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Description:

Author: Patricia Sharpe
Pages: 89
Year of Publication: 2002
Price: HB Rs 150, FB Rs 100
ISBN:
HB 81-7595-860-X (817595860X)
FB 81-7595-861-8 (8175958618)

About the Author:
Patricia L. Shapre has lived and worked in many countries as a scholar, journalist and foreign service officer, especially India and elsewhere in South Asia, the area which has made itself her second home.

Teaser:

Ironemia

You want me to be i-
ronic,
to approach
by in-
direction and speak (if I must)
through un-
derstatement. Anything else,
(you say) is un-
poetic,
like a boot
stomping a violet, I suppose.
But facing killers, I say:
NO!
Having lied in the lands of the un-
derfed and the un
enfranchised and the in-
defensible,
I say it again: NO!
Real poems don’t rage?
Can’t
carry the pain of an arm
macheteed off, shock
the only anesthetic?
Can’t fix
on the frozen eyes of Missy Pigtail
Watching a denim shirt go red
as shells make a sieve
of daddypoppafather’s chest?

Wouldn’t
stoop
to playing back, un-
damped
the primal scream
that erupts
when memory gets
un-
plugged
and horrible things
rush out?
This coyness that’s praised,
this pastelized
soft porn
that never groans or grunts or barfs
this pay dirt
for scholars and critics in-
tervening to in-
terpret for the masses,
is it elegant in-
direction or evasion?
delicacy or anemia?
ambiguity or simple lack
of care?

Contents:

Ironemia / 9
The Deadmen / 11
Attack / 21
Adolescent / 23
Men’s Games / 24
Color Blind / 26
Refugee Camp / 27
Cleaning up / 28
The Holy Terror / 29
Honor Killing / 30
Here in Cold Country / 31
Climbing Mt. Bernal / 32
The Desolation / 38
Snails / 39
Campfire Story / 40
Tea Break / 41
The Good Book / 43
Kakata / 45
Boxes / 49
Reflections / 55
Agon / 58
Bionic Woman / 60
After Dinner Speaker / 62
Between Acts / 64
Hissstory / 77
Hogging the Truth / 77

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