Kulkhura’s Courtyard

Like a shadow along this long, winding bend,
one day the people will come back.
In the hush of half-light, at dusk,
time will falter
in Kulkhura’s courtyard.

Until that day—
when the sweat of labour
hardens at the wrist like iron;
until that day—
when the dull-gold fall of the sickle
keeps the only honest record;
the blood-stained horse of struggle
will be tethered beside life itself.

In the muted sweetness of deepening dark,
the fairy-land is made to sing.
Down heaven’s ladder
the demon-king descends.
Bound into time,
the sword remembers what the throne forgets.

In the story of humankind
no one stands against the soil—
yet beneath broken promises
they shoulder the king’s splintered palanquin.

The court painter sets down the king—
a smile rehearsed, revised for history.
The people smile too, uncounted,
passing their days and nights
in wayside inns of survival.

And on the day all return
to Kulkhura’s courtyard,
the river will strip off
its winter skin,
and time—no longer neutral—
will stand
with life.

____________________________________________
April 1990
First published in Sutradhar, Autumn Issue, 1990

Editor's note

Kula Khura stands for the oppressed labour class—a living emblem of endurance, inherited toil, and silent resistance. His presence exceeds identity: he signifies a way of being marked by unfinished dignity.

Kulkhura’s courtyard figures as a shared civic space—part memory, part moral ground—where labour, power, and time intersect. Images of the sickle, palanquin, and demon-king draw on South Asian political folklore while resisting allegorical closure.

The Poem reflects on labour, power, and the long patience of time. The courtyard becomes a shared moral space where ordinary lives, historical memory, and political theatre intersect. Images of sweat, soil, and return gesture towards dignity rooted in work, while kings, courts, and rituals of display expose the fragile performance of authority. Rather than nostalgia, the poem imagines return as ethical reckoning: a moment when time, released from spectacle, stands alongside life itself.

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