Rathnapuren

Filling the heart with the scent of saman flowers brought from Ratnapura
gathering handfuls of white lotuses from Kala Wewa
from Ruhunu, plucked and daubed with fragrant kokum blossoms
we stand waiting at the Alimankada crossing
watching.. until the doors of Nagadeepa open

O Jayasrimaha Bodhi, work a great miracle
a day when a single pot of rice cooks from Dewundara to Yapa Patuna
may you bring it to us once again
at the foot of temple, church, and kovil
amid the roar of gunfire
what shatters is our humanity

On even one drop of that buried blood,
was the name of any nation ever written?
Go and ask a withering flower bud
fading at the door of an orphans’ camp
they are asking not for half the country
but only to live, to see tomorrow

This is a song for one undivided Sri Lanka, sung against the backdrop of war. It opens by gathering the whole island into a single embrace: saman flowers from Ratnapura, white lotuses from the ancient Kala Wewa tank, blossoms from Ruhunu in the deep south, and then it carries you north, to the Alimankada crossing (Elephant Pass) and the sacred island of Nagadeepa off Jaffna, waiting for its doors to open. In a few lines it has held the Sinhala south and the Tamil north in the same two hands.

At its heart is a prayer to the Jayasrimaha Bodhi for a miracle: a day when a single pot of rice could cook from Dewundara to Yapa Patuna, from the southern tip of Dondra all the way to Jaffna, the whole country eating as one family again. It sets temple, church, and kovil side by side, Buddhist, Christian, and Hindu together, and says that amid the roar of gunfire the thing that truly shatters is our humanity, not the land.

The last verse is the quietest and the hardest. On a single drop of buried blood, it asks, was the name of any nation ever written? Then go and ask a withering flower bud at the door of an orphans’ camp. They are not asking for half the country, only to be allowed to live and see tomorrow. It is a plea for peace over territory, carried by the image of a child who has lost everything.