Summary
Harpooning the angel was easy
tugging him down to the dhow,
mending him, to nail him to the mast,
was hard
Unfolding his wings to steer
against the crosswinds through the Arabian Sea
through Ratnataka was
sheer joy
So we sailed
Past floating mines
Past the coastline with its oil rigs on fire
We saw what effendi Rimbaud saw: azure swells, cruel
moons, harrowing dawns,
unforgiving suns, where, flotsam-pale, ravished, drowned
and pensive men float by
Gibreel, Gibreel, we shouted, stick to the saffron side of sea
The Green is dangerous
We saw the ships draped in cotton and raw silk
The arrogance of Tata banners and flags
Their Filippino crewmen tossing watermelon rinds
To hungry sharks
and the red eddies, marking the graves of slave ships.
and we corked by
the last game-fish
wrapped in pashmina shawls
followed by fishermen with bait, with hook and sinker
and sticks of dynamite
Ahoy Land!
Gibreel, Gibreel stick to the saffron side of sea
The mist lifting its skirt
To an indifferent grey
Where are the Himalayas? Where is Cochin?
The captain brought out the maps, the compass,
The GPS, soggy Jules Verne's pages,
Soggier biscuits
Ahoy, Mumbai!
Brought down the mast
Folded the wings
Loaded the cameras, the Sim Cards
Easing the boat
Ahoy Gandhiland's shopping malls
Behind the Gun Boats
Behind the Gateway
The Taj on fire!
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- From Around the World in Eighty DaysThe India Section, pp. 16 - 17Publisher: University of South AfricaPrint publication year: 2014