Vavunia is in a bowl. A poem of Dry Zone Sri Lanka

Vavunia is in a bowl

In the bowl are bodies of water

The water is filled with fish

In the fish were sculpted other fish

The sculpted fish had open mouths

And after centuries they looked like spleens or stomachs

Wrenched of meaning because they were sculpted from clay and buried for two thousand years 

The clay gotten from silt

The silt collected from tanks

The tanks at the bottom of the bowl

--

People come down into the bowl

Here they pray and do business

Here they burn coconuts and incense and garbage

Here fumes from cycles and trucks stay 

even after the people go home to their suburban precincts

The suburban precincts are all called kulam this and kulam that

After bowls of their own

That once collected water

And now are extinct

The bowls were shaped like spleens and stomachs

Open on one end and less open on the other

They were lined with clay

Semi-permeable like cell membranes

They stored and persuaded water

The water went to rice

Nearby water buffalo swamped

And swapped

And gave milk for curd

--

The curd is yogurt it was made in clay pots made from silt 

Some silt is eaten by crocodiles

says folklore and that's why they eat so seldom

But when they eat it is with big bites

The bowl shakes

And the water in it like jelly

In some places jelly is called cheese

In some places curd is called yogurt

In some places lakes are called wewa

In some places lakes are called kulam

In some places palmyrah grows

Other places kumbuk grows

Other places margosa grows

In some places margosa is called neem

Small girls throw stones with their left arms and hit a dog 50 feet away

Small girls when they are done with the first stone pick up another

Small girls hit the running dog a second time with stones

And a third time as the dog decides not to come back

These girls are our hostesses and cooks smiling and nodding and watching while they don't watch

These girls finish four years of university taught in English with not a word of English

These girls want government jobs

The government wants this bowl

The government wants these rupees

The government wants these hearts

The govt wants these motorways 

The govt wants this gravel

The govt wants these bund roads

The govt wants these coconut groves

The govt wants this coir 

--

This chorus is recorded

These horns are recorded

These bells are not recorded

These cows are recorded and they're not recorded

These cows are animals here

Like giant monkeys

And giant storks

And graceful cranes

And slithering mongooses

And stinging ants

And wading frogs at poolside

And peacocks in the field

And hawks with serpents in their mouth

And eagles soaring high and higher

And dragonflies in a small evanescent swarm

And cats domesticated and semi domesticated 

And crows waiting for the catch in Point Pedro

And flying foxes letting loose at dusk in Jaffna

And a dead monkey in the Royal Pleasure Garden in Anuradhapura

And a stinging ant in a deluxe guesthouse in Colombo