Sugarcane
Also called by Yati Raj Nyaupane, Yati Raj Ajnabee is an enthusiast of letters who had to leave his parents, siblings and his homeland in the first year of his teens in 1992. He, who was born in Surey, a village in Southern Bhutan, has been living in Australia since September 2008. The chap is convinced that the language and literature of a community reflect how far it has reached in the road to civilization. According to his inner man, underlining promotion and preservation of culture, language and literature in a foreign country when an exodus leaves its indigenous locale for keeps, is so tough and testing that it turns out to be a knack if one does well in doing so. He can be contacted at yrajanabee@gmail.com.
Yati Raj Ajnabee
Adelaide, Australia
Neither have I boughs to roof your head
Nor have I the floret to embellish your plait
I don’t have pollen to slake your intemperate itch
I have no fruits to fill your bottomless pit
I neither knew to bud nor did I know to bear a fruit
As I don’t know which flower
And which grain to offer to which deity,
I am an X.
The plant is known here by its fruit
And the size and weight of the fruit it bears
I exist until I remain so-and-so
I am notched and imbibed by those who know me
The only thing I have is the honeyed fluid substance
Hidden in me like toothsome nectar in poetry.
So as to let you get sweet on me,
I have to be cut, crushed and gulped.