Free Handwriting by Michael Ondaatje Page B

were held above the night sea
    exposing the bodies of fish—
    and were killed and made more famous.
    iv
    What we lost.
    The interior love poem
    the deeper levels of the self
    landscapes of daily life
    dates when the abandonment
    of certain principles occurred.
    The rule of courtesy—how to enter
    a temple or forest, how to touch
    a master’s feet before lesson or performance.
    The art of the drum. The art of eye-painting.
    How to cut an arrow. Gestures between lovers.
    The pattern of her teeth marks on his skin
    drawn by a monk from memory.
    The limits of betrayal. The five ways
    a lover could mock an ex-lover.
    Nine finger and eye gestures
    to signal key emotions.
    The small boats of solitude.
    Lyrics that rose
    from love
    back into the air
    naked with guile
    and praise.
    Our works and days.
    We knew how monsoons
    (south-west, north-east)
    would govern behaviour
    and when to discover
    the knowledge of the dead
    hidden in clouds,
    in rivers, in unbroken rock.
    All this we burned or traded for power and wealth
    from the eight compass points of vengeance
    from the two levels of envy
    v
    In the forest of kings
    a Dilo Oil tree, a Pig Lily,
    a Blue Dawn Bonnet flower
    Parrot trees. Pigeon Berries.
    Alstonia for the making of matchsticks
    Twigs of Moonamal for the cleaning of teeth
    The Ola leaf on which to compose
    our stanzas of faith
    Indigo for eyelids, aerograms
    The mid-rib of a coconut palm
    to knit a fence
    Also Kalka, Churna,
    Dasamula, Tharalasara …
    In the south most violence began
    over the ownership of trees,
    boundary lines—the fruit
    and where it fell
    Several murders over one jak fruit tree
    vi
    For years the President built nothing but clock-towers.
    The main causes of death
    were “extra-judicial execution”
    and “exemplary killings.”
          
“A woman said a man pretending to be from the
military made her part with four jak trees in
her garden as a consideration for obtaining the
release of her son arrested some years earlier
during the period of terror.”
    —Daily News 15.10.94
asd
    The address of torture was off the Galle Road in Kollupitiya
    There were goon squads from all sides
    Our archaeologists dug down to the disappeared
    bodies of schoolchildren
    vii
    The heat of explosions
    sterilized all metal.
    Ball bearings and nails
    in the arms, in the head.
    Shrapnel in the feet.
    Ear channels
    deformed by shockwaves.
    Men without balance
    surrounding the dead President
    on Armour Street.
    Those whose bodies
    could not be found.
    vii
    “All those poets as famous as kings”
    Hora gamanak yana ganiyak
  
A woman who journeys to a tryst
    
kanakara nathuva
  
having no jewels,
    
kaluwan kes kalamba
  
darkness in her hair,
    
tharu piri ahasa
  
the sky lovely with its stars

2
    THE NINE SENTIMENTS
    (Historical Illustrations on Rock and Book and Leaf)

i
    All day desire
    enters the hearts of men
    Women from the village of __________
    move along porches
    wearing calling bells
    Breath from the mouth
    of that moon
    Arrows of flint
    in their hair
    ii
    She stands in the last daylight
    of the bedroom painting her eye,
    holding a small mirror
    The brush of sandalwood along the collarbone
    Green dark silk
    A shoe left
    on the cadju tree terrace
    these nights when “pools are
    reduced by constant plungings”
    Meanwhile a man’s burning heart
    his palate completely dry
    on the Galapitigala Road
    thinking there is water in that forest
    iii
    Sidelong coquetry
    at the Colombo Apothecary
    Desire in sunlight
    Aliganaya
—“the embrace
    during an intoxicated walk”
    or “sudden arousal
    while driving over speed bumps”
    Kissing the birthmark
    on a breast,
    tugging his lotus stalk
    (the literal translation)
    on Edith Grove
    Or “conquered on a car seat”
    along Amarasekera Mawatha
    One sees these fires
    from a higher place
    on the cadju terrace
    they wander like gold
    ragas of longing
    like lit sequin
    on her shifting green dress
    iv
    States of confusion as a