Across the Wall of My House in Silchar Was Meghalaya

by Goirick Brahmachari

That rented house where we stayed at Rangirkhari
shared my school’s boys hostel's wall. Angel-eyed-Meghalayan children
from far away villages would come to live there.
My landlord hated them
And called them evil
for they stole all the coconuts.

The children of dark clouds,
My friends,
they knew how to climb trees,
in the darkness of the night.
For they spoke the language of the trees.
They sang to the night.

I must confess, I did try to bribe them with guavas.
So that they save me from the school bullies
But they stayed with me
even without an incentive

For we were the similar kinds
One, not in tongue, but in voice
The middle benchers
are never noteworthy

Their earth skinned mothers
could not feed them
in spite of the hard work they endured
These were times of acute hunger
So they sent their children to the lowlands
to spread the name of Jesus.