Poems from Ceylon

Poetry from a Different Epoch

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Dilantha Gunawardana, a molecular biologist/biochemist trained at the University of Melbourne, lives in a chimerical universe of science and poems. Dilantha’s poems have been accepted for publication /published in The Writing Disorder, Heart Wood Literary Magazine, Quadrant Online, Poets for Science, Canary Literary Magazine, Cordite Poetry Review, Forage, Kitaab, Creatrix, Eastlit, Cephalo Press and Zingara Poetry Review among others, while also contributing to three poetry anthologies, including his latest collection of Cancer themed poems which he penned while battling cancer. Dilantha made into the final three in the award for the best original poetry for the year 2024 in Sri Lanka’s State Literary Awards Ceremony and was also awarded the prize for “The emerging writer of the year – 2016” in the Godage National Literary Awards, Sri Lanka, while being shortlisted for the poetry prize, in the same awards ceremony. Dilantha lives in a beautiful island country shaped like a teardrop, Sri Lanka, known for its black tea, true cinnamon, the love of a colonial game called cricket, passion for spicy curries and was formed as recently as ~23 to ~5 million years ago, breaking away from the Indian landmass. Dilantha in his free time takes part in pub quizzes, maintains a photography blog dedicated to birds, forays into prose writing, and plays basketball, soccer and cricket. Dilantha’s poems can be found at: https://poemsfromceylon.com/

To Male Seahorses

Wow,

Being a bubble

           Gum – chewer doesn’t

  Qualify you  to be a  balloon blower,

     but being   a   male   seahorse   gifts   you

   A brood pouch.

2000 thank yous Dad for doing

Mom’s job, wearing an oven apron,

       Your own paternity gowns,

   Keeping a watchful eye, and 

For the  pre-eclampsia and

   The   trimester   blues.

I see your eye spine, nose spine

         And cheek spines, your

     Long snout that we inherited,

                But I see vividly the tall coronet,

                        Lesser   royalty but   a beautiful

                                     Accolade of bone and spine,

                                    And     your    keel, that     doesn’t

                                   Gift you side wings. You are our heroic

                                & brave Lancelot in gallant shining armor,

                            In a perfect Camelot, your colossal bastion,

                                 Your court,   where your    chivalry stands

                                   The test of time, not   just as a casbah.

                                      Fortified by your ballooning armor

                                              We lay  imagining a   world,

                                                 Where  we  get  to see,

                                                  Your twin cheek

                                             Spines metamorphose

                                          Into dimples. You are

                                  Our hero, you pseudo-

                                   placental, balloon-shaped,
                                             Apple of our eyes.
                                                  As ectopically,

                                                   Beneath skin folds

                                                    Lay a confinement,

                                                 Walled by your

                                                       Armored

                                                                Ranch, 

                                                                     Housing,                     

                                                                            Our seafoal

                                                                                                    Farms.

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