The Cardinal Sings

The Cardinal Sings

By Anant Dhavale

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Not the free,

Nay the prisoner

The Cardinal sings to 

Wake you up

Wake up!

Not the pious, 

Nay the sinner

Afflictions of sense, 

Calamities of breath – I say,

Leave the shadows, 

The shadows! Beseech the

Light, I say beseech 

The light now!

Not the noble

Nay the murderer

All mornings are

Divine in hindsight and

Religion is blatant

Excuse for war

Go away Tiresias

We know how this ends

(It ends like the 

recrudescence of the last war)

Don’t you get it, it’s

Him–he sings for you,

The Cardinal sings for

You!

Not the jester,

Nay the king.

—-

Nativity

I burn with muted flames

A slow

Change of state

Find me if you can, in this

Heap of things

Once shone bright,

I am the lost planet of a

Dead star with

No strings of longing

My solace is my

Carnage –

A bloodstorm of desire

Sorrow is not infinite, and

This hour of

Nativity is

Also, the hour of my end.

.

Anant Dhavale

Civilization is a Zero-Sum Game

The Kung San of the Kalahari Desert, The Tuareg people of Algeria, Libya, Niger, and Burkina Faso,

The Berbers of Morocco, The Maasai of East Africa, and The Hadzabe People of Tanzania.

The Copts and Nubians in the Nile Valley. The Maori of New Zealand and the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders of Australia.

The Warlis, the Bhils, the Onge

The Jarawa and the Sentinelese

The Gonds and the Korkus of India.

The Navajos, the Cherokees, the Sioux,

The Ojibwe, the Choctaw, the Apache,

And the Lenapes of the United States. 

People older than the histories of the

Nations

They are now listed under. 

Civilization is a zero-sum game of

Pushing the sons and daughters of the

Soil to the brink of extinction.

.

Anant Dhavale