Poet : Devika V
have you had to tell plants to not die?
to not fall to the propellers of time?
no, not just yet!
you cannot die, you must live, you must!
//
a motor that refuses to work
a reflector of the circle of life, the thief of memory
becomes (my) greatest foe,
so (i) lift buckets of water,
every cup a fight against the persistence of death,
and with every pour (i) repeat “you must live, you must”
the plants must’ve wondered, at the change of hands
and the fire in the eyes, at the hands and fire of a griever,
is this a battle against the inevitability of absence?
is this a battle against the persistence of presence’s need to slip away?
the war cry was (ironically) a love call,
and the plants decided to live,
the tree decided to bear leaf again
//
(my) father’s absence had sucked the water
from their roots,
but pumped will into (my) heart space,
the only presence was of an absence,
both impending and ever-present
to (my) mother’s eyes, my will was exhausting,
but elusive to defeat, for it was woven with loss,
so she took another cup, and whispered to the plants
“you must live”
the war cry was (ironically) a love call,
and the plants decided to live,
the tree decided to bear leaf again
//
so when grief is your teacher,
absence becomes a lesson in photographing presence,
one flows into the other, as loss does into life,
shadows grow, from light-lacks to person-presences,
and the wall merely a passerby in its journey,
Devika V is an Assistant Professor of Literature at St. Albert’s College (Autonomous),
Ernakulam. Having grown up with her father’s visual storytelling and mother’s verbal
storytelling, Devika continues to tell stories through her blog “The Storyteller’s Story” and through her Instagram handle @forestchild. She is also a TEDx Speaker and Busker, writing as a part of the art and literature collective Busking Kochi.
An exploration of the choreography of human action and interaction, propelled by the flow of grief in its immediacy and their connection to one’s closest natural environment. How does the absence of someone, color our thoughts? How do we try and evoke their presence in the world we beautifully inhabited with them? What does that absence do to this ecosystem?
The element that represents me
A tree.
The Stillness Project 