Before I Die
In Before I Die... the poet thematises unpatriotic arrogance of the privileged few and the angst of the hurting observer as incompatible for an enabling community. Each poem becomes a cautionary statement to the living before that inevitable passage when the hangman knocks on the door. Colloquial but satirical, contemporary and futuristic, the collection constructs a family-community dichotomy and unfulfilled desires spiced with hypocrisy within what emerges as a metaphorical “triangle” in a “globe”, with legitimate questions of identity and belonging in the aftermath of a poorly negotiated community. In such a space, politics and politicians are caricatured, just as the conflict between poet-persona and his village elders provokes utopian ideals, which may hopefully be constructed into a redemptive mode for a new future.
