G. S. Sharat Chandra
G. S. Sharat Chandra is a professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Missouri—Kansas City. His newest books are Immigrants of Loss (Hippopotamus Press, England) and Family of Mirrors (BkMk Press, Missouri). Author of ten books, including translations from Sanskrit and English into the Indian language Kannada, a former Fulbright Fellow and recipient of an NEA Fellowship in Creative Writing, Chandra has given readings at the Library of Congress, Oxford, and McDaid's Pub in Dublin. See other work published in Weber Studies by G. S. Sharat Chandra: Poetry—Vol. 4.1, Vol. 7.1, Vol. 9.3, Vol., 15.1 Fiction—Vol. 15.1.
After the Earthquake in India
(30 September 1993)
it's a habit by now
head bent
at four a.m., the birds wake
to complain
they do this cackling in
forgotten dialects of the poor
yesterday's count was thirty-one-thousand
as if longing for more
the morning news will bring
more bodies to the surface
counting is one way
of thinning the eye
to a diet of faith
someone says if there's divine justice
it favors solid foundations
mud & rock slip through God's fingers
we can discuss this at length
but if prayers are shouts
pain is the lost argument