Niraj Dahal
Mentality
Dead stillness gripped the court
When the advocate said—
“Your honor!
His daughter was raped
For being clad in short robes
That exposed her seductive parts.”
Order! Order!!
Taking the eyeglasses off his eyes
The judge wiped his tears
And said—
“Could it be possible that my six-year old daughter
Also had a seductive body?”
Question-Answer
Ask—
To which country the Buddha belongs
But never ask—
Where the edges of his Buddhahood are.
Many answers here need eyes
And not voice.
End
Thinking
How much distance I might scale all my life
I stared counting my steps
One day, death came to me;
My feet stopped
But the journey did not.
Dewdrops
Dear Sun,
You rising means
My existence getting robbed off me
And your refusal to rise
Means rendering the luster inside me banal.
I am waiting
To witness the pristine show
Of my own demise.
The Law
A painter
Drew a beautiful picture
In imaginations of his daughter.
When the picture was ready
He concealed with red paint
The breasts and the genitals
Before pasting the same on the wall
He wrote underneath the painting:
“Daughter, you take birth in the same form.”
[Niraj Dahal (b. 1996) is a Nepali poet from Jhapa District. His poems have been collected in Ujyaloka Maliharu, a joint collection of verses by young poets. He is presently based in Kathmandu, and is pursuing his bachelor’s degree in English from Tribhuvan University.]
