U- This Poem Starts Here by Imsanenla Jamir

“Ü-This Poem Starts Here”

Imsanenla Jamir

(For my grandmother and her grandmothers and her grandmother’s grandmothers.)

| The crow at your funeral perched on a naked tree Otsü1 smiled- said you paid a visit You are the pots clanking at night- said you paid a visit The first stone at the graveyard The rumble among the bamboos You who went and never came back

|| Your tsüngkotepsü - 2 stained and painted with tigers, mithuns and heads Your ardour, your children, your grandchildren You walked barefooted to the capital An alien gun bound on your back

||| Otsü had ten mouths to feed and lull Empty ponds, dying fields- rape Cicadas mocking her- and her sully shawl Now grandchildren asks her Why women did not- and Why women should go to war

|||| The leaf of life Our ancestors plucked- Plucked from the forest spirit

1 Otsü- Ao Naga word for grandmother.

2

tsüngkotepsü- An Ao Naga shawl stained with plant juice, or embroidered with pictures of tigers,mithuns and heads they (warrior) killed.

Ladder to heaven erected- erected our ancestors Plucked and ate clouds This lust for life

|||| Otsü, Obu3 My name- Your namesake But- Wrapped my tongue, I have Shortened my name, I have Shrank, diluted my being Rammed my pot of milk With stones and offered it to them But- They know, they know They know It all All the letters from A to Z Except what comes after Z

Ü4 This lust for life This pregnant lady’s contractions This naked child spread on my chest- I welcome them all This poem starts here

3 Obu- Ao Naga word for grandfather.

4 Ü- The last word in Ao Naga alphabet