What is the Interpretation of the New Millenium?by Jhamak Kumari Ghimire
A soft light glimmers
on the eve of people’s deaths
The fern unfurls out of season
without its stem
having matured
No mourning will be observed now
on the eves of people’s deaths
What is the interpretation of this age?
A separate live identity
thrives inside a scream
After a hollow ending
the raped
accused
abducted
orphaned skeletons
won’t exorcise their agitation
at the crossroads of expression
as one exorcises
witches and ghosts
by sacrificing chicks
The sari and blouse torn in
the poverty of a rag to wear
in the freezing winters
dam the snow rivers of the season
and yet there is no hint of bitterness
The yearned-for attacks
not just of one winter
but of thunder and lightning
spread no mutinous luminescence
A peaceful flame burns forever
at evening time in the homes of the dead
It is likely that
the cultured people who affect devotion
do not wish to offer to the fire
a single tear
for this millennium
Now, what is the interpretation of this age?
Each hurting moment
Each hurting tremor
kisses the arrival of the new millennium
without the slightest cry of pain
Not a stir of the new millennium came
to the frostbitten heels of the old grandmother
to the ragged tunic of the old grandfather
The water jugs filled by a young girl
near this courtyard of poverty
taunt the new millennium
the flowers she has plucked and arranged
unearth countless realities
and search in the grandmother’s torn sari and blouse
in the grandfather’s patched tunic
for the interpretation of the new millennium
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Photo description: Ghimire is a Nepalese woman in her early twenties. It's a black-and-white photo showing her with a short haircut and her bare right foot resting atop her left knee. She reportedly types her work with her toes. She's wearing a printed button-down blouse and dark-colored pants. She's laughing, with such a large happy grin on her face, straight pretty teeth showing and eyes squinted shut with laughter.
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