Two Poems
By Samodh Porawagamage
Dear Corporal,
From today, I will not sign or date my letters. They are a small reason for the milk to grow in my breasts. Your mother says I should stop giving breast milk to our son before he attends school. Tomorrow, I will mail the application to the school in registered post. Then I’ll kiss a stamp on this postcard to find you. It is late and the lamp burns low. The letter will share the pillow with me tonight. We are a long sentence fitting into a torn page. When you write, don’t bother putting your postcard in an envelope. Sriya Miss at the post office will read it to her new assistant anyway.
_Corporal’s woman
My Lover,
Anoma showed me the poem she sent to her man today. It should be a sin to waste that much of space to divide the lines. If you want me to make poems again, come home to stay. We will sit by the doorstep during the sunset and send Nidhuk to sleep. Then we could cuddle into the dark and make it a kavi race until mosquitoes come to lift us into the air. Whoever loses will undress and lie first in the bed.
_Your love
· Kavi = poetry
Samodh Porawagamage is a Sri Lankan poet who writes about the 2004 Tsunami, Sri Lankan Civil War, poverty, and colonialism, among other things. His poems have appeared in The Sunday Observer, Ceylon Daily News, Annasi & Kadalagotu, Mantis, etc. and most recently accepted by The Bloodaxe Anthology of Sri Lankan Poetry. These two postcards are from his manuscript To Punani Camp.