Compassion

charity

We give, when giving takes a chunk
Out of us. We give still, knowing that there is a boomerang
We don’t see, making poetic turns in the sky.
Karma, in all her twists and turns, summersaults and dives
Playing a game, of inverses and reversals.

Yet sometimes we give, transcending gain
Or clause or condition or fit. To the very palm
That has only two fingers. To guide the very eye that has no sight.
To donate wheels to the feetless.
Knowing there are baroreceptors
In the drowning eye and a place that cries
Like a nestling, for some worms.

And there’s nothing more dramatic
Than the traffic of tears owning every reason
They are flowing for, and an onion, we call a conscience
That peals itself with her bare hands,
To push little brine drops off an edge.
To remind us who we are

Children of a lesser god.
Armed with a disability, disarming compassion.

Published by Curiosity-driven life (Dilantha Gunawardana)

Dr Dilantha Gunawardana graduated from the University of Melbourne, as a molecular biologist, and moonlights as a poet. He currently serves as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Botany, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Dilantha lives in a chimeric universe of science and poetry. Dilantha’s poems have been accepted for publication /published in HeartWood Literary Magazine, Canary Literary Magazine, Boston Accent, Forage, Kitaab, Eastlit, American Journal of Poetry, Zingara Poetry Review, The Wagon and Ravens Perch, among others. Dilantha too has two anthologies of poetry, 'Kite Dreams' (2016) and 'Driftwood' (2017), both brought to the readership by Sarasavi Publishers, and is working on his third poetry collection (The Many Constellations of Home). Dilantha’s pet areas of teaching and research, include, Nitrogen Fixation, RNA biology, Phytoremediation, Agricultural Biology, and Bioethics & Biosafety. Dilantha blogs at – https://meandererworld.wordpress.com/ -, where he has nearly 2000 poems. View all posts by Curiosity-driven life (Dilantha Gunawardana)