found object series/'dust, tape, and paint' by Ian Engelberger

Found object series/leaflet by Ian Engelberger

dehra dun. photo by Katrina Kiritharan

Poem by Ian Engelberger

to be drowsily like a father

the base lethargy, reinforced
paternal drowsiness caused by ancestral intoxication, drowsy.
one of the three debts-to stagger like a drunk a man
the other two being-to behave like an opiate or a person
from which, with a pin, he is freed when he begets a son
to be drowsily like a father
owing to intoxication
a father figure,
respected, revered,
to lament irritatedly
the world of fathers and of the deceased, presses crushes and kills for
consent

the rights are performed flaccidly on the fifteenth day
of the dark soft fortnight
of the month of over ripe soft
which marks farewell to the son
formed for the gratification of the father
patriarchs rendered flaccid soft
patricide enough to make a boy drink,
or to administer bilious threats-
evil spirited sons who speak ill
cliched slanderers
to be ground
to be powdered
to be pressed.

(source: a hindi dictionary)