Gatha – The word means a ‘ballad’ or a ‘story-poem’ in Punjabi
Each time he sights a ship
passing into absence
Blood comes out of his nose
and his lips
recite Komagata Maru
Each time he assumes silence
some crew-like thing keeps
rising from un-italicized
shores. Filling the land with
cast iron taste and smell
Small waves, saline fish starry
drops of water acquire
a voice then
Of course unsinkable
Each time it is told
It feels like a story
at the right moment
In one ironic re-telling
a crisp chorus of 376
The vessel superbly navi-
gated by Wade Grant
of the Musqueam Indian Band:
‘We would have embraced
the ship passengers
much as we welcomed Europeans
We are impacted by the same racist
policies and we feel
the same pain
passed to generations’
And you? Tell me your story
