My name too ends with Singh
It too means brave, it too sings
My father wears a turban too
He too wears a beard
My aunts
they dance together
For every alien beat imagined
My uncles run open kitchens
For whenever America cries
They step up, step into—
hurricanes or
earthquakes, war zones
for that is their way of life
man to man and man to god
the Sikh embodies actions
that their ancestors taught.
They do.
They don’t say
action lodges
in a Sikh’s blood
so, they actioned
feeding endlessly
as the virus
raged tirelessly.
Sikh, fearless.
their wives and sisters, their
kaur daughters make curries
baking bread, sliced, or fried
the Sikhs gathered, fed God
through man, they never ask
they never have, they do, for
they do not care, for who you
were or what you were called.
they serve, seek humanity
just as their seers had taught
the same simple ways my mother
works her days, for she too taught
me some of the same, with folded
hands, “work is worship”
she said each morn
while she hummed
the prayer song
her spine straight
hands echoing spaces
she, my father, are as
Sikhs are—
One Sikh.
Oneness.
like every parent, they too say—
“Child, you must embody
what a Sikh truly means.
Oneness is what a Sikh holds.
Your muse is Him, none else.
Do not dread, dare to dream
stay in Chardi Kalan, always
no matter what, speak in a
kind voice, like the Beas of
your birth, flow into places.”
They wore turbans too
working packages
on a chilly night
a coincidence maybe
it matters not, for
four Sikhs killed in
another random response.
I am a Sikh too
my name is Singh
I also bear Sikhs
My name is Singh
I wonder who is tracking my
wheels, I wonder why I need
to explain, their compassion
or the Singh’s effervescence
I wonder when we will dare
to face the image
of man in man
not economize—
them
I wonder when encounters
of man to man will change
on the streets of America–
Black man, a Sikh man, or a
Brown man, Gay man, these
Different men, another man
Just being a student of man
Just hands holding up a sky
Be seekers, be Sikhs, seeking
fedex facility-
their soup kitchen
feeds funerals
job posting-
$17 dollars an hour
all can apply
eight deceased victims.
Matthew R. Alexander, 32; Samaria Blackwell, 19; Amarjeet Johal, 66; Jasvinder Kaur, 50; Jaswinder Singh, 68; Amarjit Sekhon, 48; Karli Smith, 19; and John Weisert, 74.
—
Chardi kalan – Sikh belief of eternal optimism
Beas – a river that flows through the state of Punjab in India which is where most sikhs come from
—
Kashiana Singh calls herself a work practitioner and embodies the essence of Work as Worship into her everyday. Her chapbook Crushed Anthills from Yavanika Press in 2020 is a journey that unravels memory through 10 cities.
