Bramah and the Beggar Boy Read online

  Bramah and the Beggar Boy

  I’m fascinated by Renée Sarojini Saklikar’s ongoing and expansive lyric assemblage, the multiple trade books across her The Heart of This Journey Bears All Patterns. This is a project that should be revered and studied in the same breath as bpNichol’s Martyrology, Robert Kroetsch’s Completed Field Notes and Dennis Cooley’s love in a dry land. Saklikar has clearly absorbed and understood the myriad traditions of the long poem, and furthers the structures into wildly unexpected places; pushing the boundaries of what writing can do, and the formal possibilities of what bpNichol termed a “poem as long as a life.”

  —rob mclennan

  Bramah and the Beggar Boy takes us into a near-future apocalyptic world on an odyssey of our time. Like Melville’s great whaling story, Saklikar’s marvelous tale rivets us with mind-blowing insights into the destructive forces at work right now in our capitalist world and how we might resist and overcome them. It’s a page-turner.

  —Meredith Quartermain

  With Bramah and the Beggar Boy, Renée Sarojini Saklikar has resurrected the epic poem for the Anthropocene, merged it with the visionary qualities of speculative fiction, and woven diasporic threads into a new and necessary act of world making. The future was such a long time ago—but maybe it’s not over yet. Throw the dice. Jump the fence. Cross the threshold. The carmen perpetuum, the continuous song of THOT J BAP has begun. Only beauty unfolds from here.

  —Stephen Collis

  2021

  Copyright © Renée Sarojini Saklikar, 2021

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the publisher or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright, the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency, www.accesscopyright.ca, [email protected].

  Nightwood Editions

  P.O. Box 1779

  Gibsons, BC V0N 1V0

  Canada

  www.nightwoodeditions.com

  Cover design: Topshelf Creative

  Cover art: Nadina Tandy

  Typography: Carleton Wilson

  Illustrations: Line drawings by the author; pine cone and microscope images (pp. 18, 84, 93) from Wikimedia Commons

  Nightwood Editions acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Canada, and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council.

  This book has been produced on 100% post-consumer recycled, ancient-forest-free paper, processed chlorine-free and printed with vegetable-based dyes.

  Printed and bound in Canada.

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Title: Bramah and the beggar boy / Renée Sarojini Saklikar.

  Names: Saklikar, Renée Sarojini, author.

  Description: Poems.

  Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20210159022 | Canadiana (ebook) 20210159065 | ISBN 9780889714021 (softcover) | ISBN 9780889714038 (HTML)

  Classification: LCC PS8637.A52 B73 2021 | DDC C811/.6—dc23

  Let all evil die and the good endure

  Contents

  Welcome to the World of THOT J BAP

  Introduction

  Characters

  Locations

  Part One

  Arrival at the Gate of the Winter Portal

  That Gate, the Oracle, Her Icy Breath

  Fragments of Old Reports Unverified

  Consortium’s Song

  Resistance Song

  From the Wishing Well to Perimeter’s Edge

  The Summons: Bramah on a Job

  Village Women Gossip

  Video Surveillance Monitor, Malfunctioning

  Overheard

  As Recorded by Several Un/named Witnesses

  The Adventures of Bramah and the Beggar Boy

  Their First Adventure

  Their Second Adventure

  Their Third Adventure

  The Beggar Boy Meets Bramah’s Grandmother

  The Things They See

  The Map They Steal

  The Things They Take

  Grandmother’s Instruction

  Video Surveillance: Investigator’s Logbook

  Bramah and the Beggar Boy Find an Old Oak Box

  The Letter They Find

  Partial Transcript: The Rehabilitated Scientists

  Photographs of Prisoners

  Court Records of the Lost

  Bill of Lading for Masks

  Scratched Disc: Recording of the Captives

  The Notes of the Beekeeper’s Daughter

  The Map of the Last Knight

  Video Remnant of the Migrants

  The Parchment Scroll

  Unfurled

  Chased to the Gate of the Spring Portal, 2050

  The Great Abandonment

  The Five Catastrophes

  Followers of Aunty Maria

  Aunty Maria’s Clandestine Harvest

  Aunty Maria Told Us

  Scientists on the Run

  In the Dry, We Find Our Moments to Rest

  Our Comparative Study: The Beauty Bush

  Our Observations May Well Go Unheeded

  Battle Song of the Streets

  After Curfew, Two Masked Scientists, Roaming

  On the Desk of the Investigator

  Inside Detention Centre C

  Orders for Surveillance

  The Curiously Disappearing Document

  Taken from the Notebooks of Aunty Maria, After the Science Trials

  Our Testimony About Aunty Maria

  To Be Confiscated: Three Hologram Plates Plate #1

  Plate #2

  Plate #3

  Song of the Scientists

  After the Battle of Kingsway, the Bees

  Posted on Cy-Board #6: Aunty Maria’s Lament

  The Last Known Observation Report

  Captured at the Gate of the Summer Portal, 2052

  The Great Dispersal

  The Good Doctor, as Posted on Cy-Board #6

  The Good Doctor in Paris

  The Good Doctor, Witness to the Fate of Children

  Resister Statements Pinned to Cy-Board #6

  Logbook of the Guards, Paris Fifth Gate

  Dr. A.E. Anderson, Person of Interest

  From a Transcript Given to the Guards of the Fifth Gate

  Partial Record: The Whereabouts of Dr. A.E. Anderson, Tracked

  Transport Plane Manifest

  Paris to Pacifica, We Stitched Our Fragments

  Dr. A.E. Anderson Returned to Pacifica

  Found Inside a Consortium Lab, Pacifica Partial Record #1

  Partial Record #2

  Partial Record #3

  Logbook of the Guards, Detention Centre C, Pacifica

  Stolen from Detention Centre C, Pacifica First Report

  Second Report

  Third Report

  Resisters Brought in for Questioning We admit to surveying, up by the Eve River

  We admit we knew Aunty Maria

  We admit to helping the Doctor

  We deny knowledge of her chalice

  The Resisters Relinquish Dr. Anderson’s Instructions for a Chalice

  As Narrated by the Investigator

  Conscripted at the Gate of the Autumn Portal, 2055

  As Reported to the Investigator, Detention Centre C Informant #1

  Informant #2

  Informant #3

  The Good Doctor, as Posted on Cy-Board #6

  Desiderata

  A Guard of the Fifth Lures Betty, Daughter of the Village Spy

  The Work of Dr. Anderson as Recounted by the Village Spy

  Betty, the Daughter of th
e Village Spy

  Betty’s Statement

  Documents Obtained By Guards of the Fifth The Anderson Family, Paternal Side

  The Anderson Family, Maternal Side

  Partial Record: The Whereabouts of Dr. A.E. Anderson

  Dr. Anderson, Rendered to the Investigator

  Dr. Anderson Refuses to Answer

  Dr. A.E. Anderson, at Detention Centre C

  From a Transcript Assembled by the Guards of Detention Centre C

  The Interrogation of Dr. A.E. Anderson

  Dr. Anderson After Her First Beating The Tale of the Silver Sandals

  The Tale of Barnston Island, as Then Was Called

  Dr. Anderson After Her Second Beating All My Aunties

  Those West Coast Trails

  Dr. Anderson Hallucinates

  Dr. A.E. Anderson, Broken by a Brand

  Dr. Anderson Learns of the Kept Women

  Dr. Anderson, as Kept by the Investigator

  Dr. Anderson, Collaborator

  Dr. Anderson Sings Herself to Sleep

  Dr. Anderson: Testimony

  The Last Dream of Dr. A.E. Anderson

  The Last Words of Dr. A.E. Anderson

  The Spy’s Tale to the Investigator

  The Information

  Tribunal Meeting of the Consortium

  After the Meeting, a Verdict

  After the Verdict, Orders: Signed & Sealed

  The Execution of Dr. A.E. Anderson, 2057 The Song of the Stonebreakers’ Yard

  Smuggled Out of Detention Centre C

  Report of the Guards of the Fifth, After a Search for the Little Beggar Girl

  Four Aunties at Perimeter’s Edge

  Aftermath: Resisters and Migrants Imprisoned

  At the End of the Parchment Scroll

  The Adventures of Bramah and the Beggar Boy Continued

  Return to the Winter Portal

  Bramah Teaches the Beggar Boy About the Stars

  Honey Hunting in the Wilds of the Western Borealis

  Search for the Bitter Green Willow

  Bramah and the Resisters

  The Battle of the Whispering Trees and After

  What Bramah Learned, She Taught

  Grandmother Hears News of the Four Aunties

  Around the Campfire Called If Only… The Tale of the Girl and the Disappearing Streams

  The Tale of the Girl with a Thousand Pockets

  The Tale of the Girl with Far-Seeing Eyes

  The Tale of the Boy with the Red Canoe

  The Tale of the Girl Who Slept with Spiders

  The Things They Discover About the Old Oak Box

  Inside the Old Oak Box, the Beggar Boy Finds Another Map

  Inside the Old Oak Box, the Beggar Boy Finds a Document

  The Old Oak Box, Gone!

  Hiding Out with the Night Stitcher

  Bramah Tells the Beggar Boy She Must Leave

  Bramah Remembers a Lullaby

  Bramah’s Secret

  Many Miles to Cross

  The Investigator

  At the Chapel of the Stone Aunties

  The Last Song at the End of the Known World

  At Perimeter’s Edge

  Part Two

  Abigail Discovered

  Ruin, a Map for Perimeter

  After Curfew, Those Street Sweepers Sing

  The Four Aunties of the Wishing Well

  As Heard on the Albion Ferry

  Found Pinned to a Far Wall, Perimeter’s Edge

  Found: One Oak Box. Locked. Stained Parchment, Engraved

  Cotton Scrap, Embroidered

  A Blood-Stained Letter & Other Things

  Fare Forward, Voyagers: Hologram #1

  Fare Forward, Voyagers: Hologram #2

  Fare Forward, Voyagers: Hologram #3

  Heard Outside Tower Juniper

  Abigail and Aunty Agatha at the Farm

  Heard Outside Aunty Agatha’s Kitchen, 2058

  We Live On Just Like That

  Aunty Agatha’s Initiation into Portal Maintenance

  Aunty Agatha at the Ash Tree

  Aunty Agatha’s Lullaby About the Year 2020

  Aunty Agatha Remembers

  Aunty Agatha Teaches Abigail Two Farmhouse Songs Skipping Song

  The Widow’s Song

  The Young Dr. A.E. Anderson as Told by Aunty Agatha

  Aunty Agatha Takes Abigail to the Wishing Well

  Aunty Agatha Gossips About Her Long-Dead Husband

  Aunty Agatha Tells Abigail About the Before-Time

  Aunty Agatha and the Parchment Fragment

  These Charts Your Mother Sent to Me

  Aunty Agatha Gives Abigail a Letter

  The Keepsake

  Hologram Message of Dr. A.E. Anderson to Her Adopted Daughter, Abigail

  Abigail Abandons the Farm

  The Adventures of Abigail

  Abigail Up Against Consortium Everywhere She Went

  Abigail Accidentally Falls into a Before-Time Portal

  Abigail in Paris

  Abigail in Ahmedabad

  Abigail in Baghdad

  The Encounter

  Called by the Summer Solstice

  Abigail Returns to the Farm

  Informers Sent by Consortium

  Evening Memories

  Around the Circle Called You Could Have…

  Abigail Gets Work as a Day Labourer

  Abigail and the Android

  The Lost Holograms of Dr. A.E. Anderson Hologram #1: The Summons

  Hologram #2: Heeding the Call

  Abigail in the House of the Makers In the House of Clay and Lime

  In the House of the Glass Blowers

  In the Weavers’ Guild Hall

  The Guild Hall Makers Chant Their Secret

  Abigail and Bartholomew

  Pursued from the Gate of the Autumn Portal

  That Time of the Wildfires, Abigail Sends Word

  That Moment When They Fell

  Abigail and Bartholomew Help a Group of Seed Savers

  All the Things That Then Happened

  Hunted by Agents of Consortium

  One Night, a Bard Sings of the Battle of Kingsway

  Leaving Pacifica to Join the Resistance

  As Foretold Although She Did Not See It Then

  Time-travelling with Bartholomew

  Finding Refuge with an Ex-Lover

  After Argument, Abigail and Bartholomew Accept a Mission

  The Killings

  After the Arrest of Bartholomew

  Abigail Contemplates Divine Assistance

  Abigail Waits Outside Bartholomew’s Prison

  Abigail Sends Word to Bartholomew from the Wars

  Caravanserai: Abigail’s Quest for Bartholomew

  Abigail Searches the Secret Gardens of Paris

  Abigail Risks a Meeting with the Butcher of Paris

  In Ahmedabad, Abigail Secures a Rendezvous

  In Baghdad, Abigail Deepens Her Search

  Abigail Indentured in the Bee Palace of Baghdad

  Escape from the Bee Palace

  Battles and Deprivations

  Abigail Secures Bartholomew’s Release from Prison

  Abigail and Bartholomew Rejoin the Resistance

  Abigail Disputes the Findings of a Stray Oracle

  Guards and Informers Track Down Abigail and Bartholomew

  Abigail and Bartholomew Arrange a Secret Meeting

  Abigail Conceives Her Child

  Abigail at the Lake

  To That Which Is to Come

  Brought to the Portal of the Misshapen Season

  The Letters of Abigail and Her Lover, Bartholomew Migrant Camp #3

  Migrant Camp #8

  Migrant Camp #3

  Migrant Camp #8

  Migrant Camp #3

  From Migrant Camps to the Stone Marker

  As Recounted by the Sole Woman Survivor, Migrant Camp #3

  As Heard around the Migrants’ Campfire

  Inscribed on the Walls of Migra
nt Camp #3

  The Tale of the Village Spy, Found in the Year 2087

  Lament of the Stone Marker

  Relinquished at the Gate

  At the Gate of the Unlucky

  The Oracle of Gold and Green

  Village Women Gossip

  Four Aunties at the Wishing Well

  Outside Perimeter, Faint Echoes Heard

  The Beggar Boy’s Song

  A Note to the Reader

  Lives Lived in THOT J BAP: Book One

  Event Summary of THOT J BAP: Book One

  Chronology of Major Events in THOT J BAP: Book One

  A Note on Time Travel in THOT J BAP

  About the Poetry

  Acknowledgements

  Dedication

  Welcome to the World of THOT J BAP

  released into this fractured world of woe,

  this story, messenger, steady and slow

  your eyes to read, as your hands to then turn

  each page a portal: welcoming return

  Introduction

  One afternoon, in an old house in an abandoned village on the outskirts of Perimeter, in the place they call Pacifica, Bramah and the Beggar Boy find fragments of an ancient text in an oak box. Hunched over scraps of parchment and broken computer disks, they blow the dust off a cover, and so our story begins.

  Steeped in the tradition of fairy tales, The Heart of This Journey Bears All Patterns (THOT J BAP) features a world in which a small band of resisters and survivors meet heartbreak and destruction with rhymes and resourceful skills such as soap and glass making, as well as a belief in the supernatural. Many things happen—some good, but mostly bad—including five eco-catastrophes and a viral bio-contagion. Shape-shifting in and out of it all is the nimble Bramah, a female locksmith, part-human, part-goddess—brown, brave and beautiful.

  This is a world governed by climate change and an all-powerful Consortium. Planet Earth is on the verge of a Shift-Tilt and the changes of the seasons are themselves portals to time travel. Alas, even the seasons are mostly controlled by Consortium. Yet, as is so often the case, the powerful can’t always stop the hands of fate and the choices humans make. Throughout this poem, we hear the chants of Beggar Boys and Sword Girls as they sing, Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard (a throw of the dice will never abolish chance). The chants and rhymes are a subversive means of communication, foreshadowing events or calling on the help of our hero, Bramah.