submission by Dilantha Gunawardana

[Dilantha Gunawardana]

Dear Editors,

I'm changing my poem.

I'm withdrawing the first poem I submitted (In Switzerland) and replacing it with this one (In Switzerland and In Sri Lanka). Its still a winter poem. UNPUBLISHED.

I hope this will be OK.

Best Wishes,

Dilantha

In Switzerland and In Sri Lanka


The alpine slopes,
Sloping down. Matterhorn

Looking ominous, and an alphorn being played,
While St Bernard dogs, gather the sheep.

And down in Geneva,
International organizations

Are melting their bursaries, to move financial glaciers
From the first world to the third world.

Climate change impacted nations,
Whose shady politicians,

Beef up their pockets at will,
Bitten by the cold freeze of apathy.

While a slum dog, plays with a paper boat,
Looking at the TV, at snow falling,

Like coconut scrapings, from his mother’s scraper.
You see Swiss chocolate on supermarket racks,

Promising a world of indulgence,
Just like coconut flavored dhal curry.

Coconut cream, like melting snow,
Making puddles of dhal,

A staple here, a watered pulse that feeds
The lips of throngs of slum children,

A stark reminder that there are mountains to climb,
To eliminate poverty from this world.

While a little rascal in Colombo, breaks his till
On his b’day. A years-worth of savings,

To buy a single slab of Toblerone.

_______________________________

Dr Dilantha Gunawardana is a molecular biologist, who graduated from the University of Melbourne. He moonlights as a poet. Dilantha wrote his first poem at the ripe age of 32 and now has more than 1700 poems on his blog. His poems have been accepted/published in Forage, Kitaab, Eastlit, American Journal of Poetry and Ravens Perch, among others. He was also awarded the prize for “The emerging writer of the year – 2016” in the Godage National Literary Awards, Sri Lanka for his first collection of poems (Kite Dreams – A Sarasavi Publication), while being shortlisted for the poetry prize. Dilantha is a dual citizen of Sri Lanka and Australia, and shares his experiences from two different cultures. He blogs at – https://meandererworld. wordpress.com/