Manipur! Stop Spanking Me


by Akhu Chingangbam

Manipur, stop telling me your history,
Histories are written for books.
Stop it!
Khongnagthaba has rested
forever under the Khongnang Pambi
Smoking bidi and chewing kong kwa.
Manipur, stop showing me the 12 naked mothers
The Kangla Gate has been re-opened
Your kingdom is in your hand
don't tell me what I can do
don't disturb my way of life,
I am just a loser.

Manipur, Stop spanking me,
My buttocks are as red
as the cheeks of a Japanese infant
your spanking is not the spank of parents
it will make me bleed - my life - to death.
Manipur, stop offering me poetry.
Now I own 215 unpublished poems, enough! it is enough.
the newspaper boy delivers poetry, wrapped with the news,
every morning.
All I do is to unfold them.
the mothers in ema-keithel sell poetry
like oranges, apples and bananas,
all I need is to peel them off
Manipur, stop singing your lullaby
I have no intention to sleep on your lap
You have been decorated by death
like the marble slabs
in Ministers' toilets.
I don't want to surrender to be your son.
I believe "death is the end"

Manipur, it is raining human heads
and chopped hands, the sky above you is crying.
it has been raped by your growing mountains
what have you whispered to them?
Manipur, I don't need you to spend a sleepless night
I don't need you for my poems.
Manipur, Stop loving me when you are dying
You may find me Herculean
but don't drag me down, I don't own you.

Manipur, stop looking for your tail
when you don't have a head.
Don't spank me for my ponytail
Don't hit me for my good digestion.

Manipur, you have hills like Kashmir
why don't you cry on Kashmir's shoulder?
Some people there too have slanted eyes like you
why don’t you share the tears with their eyes?
but don’t bring suicide bombers
here it has already been bombed enough.
Manipur, don't you wear undergarments?
why do you get raped so easily?
Manipur, why do you always want to play Holi?
you don’t know when is autumn
and when is spring.
My colour-blindness doesn't matter at all I could smell your colours.
Manipur, stop reminding me the value of such a life.
I have seen my kind of lives in the gutters, in the sun;
in the name of peasants, in the name of police
in the name of death, in the name of revolutionaries.

Manipur, are you testing
our human kinds can be a sample or not?
Are you asking for an exodus?
are you asking for a movement, a mass movement?
or are you crucifying yourself ?

Manipur, why are your poets obsessed with Africa?
why did they bull-doze the landscape of Chaoba Kamal?
Manipur, don't spank me any more
I disown you, you disown me.

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