Author: Uday

The air prints of dragonflies
broke the visual silence of the sky.
Stones in their Shanti mood
were resting on the Chernobyl breath of soil.
Red-headed vulture was scanning the barcode of death
and I saw life soon to be lost to luck under a truck.
It seems god doesn’t play dice but Ludo.
Buddhist cat was meowing something holy and lowly
but the ant bands in their circus rhythm
were digging up old secrets of earth.
Lovers in the end of the world desperation and caution
in their apocalyptic chats gave a look
and shooed me away like a leprosy patient of Calcutta.
Hell is you not being wanted when you are hungry for company, at least from a distance.
the footpaths are colonized by the street vendors
to get their share of Indian dream.
but all dreams are spun by the corporate spiders
to kill the prey when they are busy sipping chai.
there are no roads but only gaps to slip by
and merge into the wilderness of urban madness.

A parade of souls
and a few frightened cows
were busy in their redemption games.
Diyas were lit to clean karma
and whitewash the black lungs.
Caught in these dangerous hopes
the Peepal tree and the hornbills
too joined the parade.
Divine silence was filled with the
graffiti of chants and it grew louder
as the rain romanced with the airy sounds.
City river with the ads of oracles
welcomed the priest and the pilgrims
with its wide forearms and orphaned waterbirds.
A dog and its war buddies
with bad twisted tails
ate rice while the frog
sang something vice.

Comrade
saw a rainbow
in the shadow.
Shakti and Shiva
ready to shock and walk.
but the
skeletons
fed on soda
cannot pop out
when they see choke-out.
they think that
what’s done
cannot be undone.
sure. sure.
but what can be done
must be done.
Pencil fights
and a few bites in the nights
mean nothing.