Marc Nair (b. 1981)
SELECTED POEMS
Mother, My Other, Tongue
Parasurama pulled Kerala from the sea fully formed, all
160 katam between Gokarnam and Kanyakumari.I lost my other tongue
before I knew
I had language and history,
rising from the axe
of a warrior sage, atonement
after destroying the ruling caste.My Otherland birthed in myth,
freed from the poison of snakes
that seeped into fields, crops flailing.
In return, the Nairs became
snake-worshipping people, warriors
cozened to the plough, now we wielded
pen and paper as sword and shield.Today, I am tourist,
a traveller through other tellings
of my history, searching but missing
the words to belong. I adopt Malay
as my easier mother, the one
whose script is Romanised, whose
loan words are more familiar.But I will always be orphan
in my forked tongue,
kept from birthright and blood,
with sibilant dreams that I too
am Kshatriya, reborn in another time,
safe from mythical slaughter and flood,
yet no closer to mother:
unseen, untranslated, other.
by Marc Nair
from The Earth in our Bones (2023)
