Godhara
by Nilanshu Kumar Agarwal
A civilization is outraged.
The hydra-headed monster
Of terrorism prepares coffins for the innocent.
A six month old's flesh is scarred.
Petrol bombs at Godhara*
Mocking at the concept of human rights.
Where are fundamental rights?
Where is humanism?
Where is secularism?
Where is socialism?
Nowhere, nowhere, nowhere.
Only the naked opportunism of politicians.
Godhara reminding the poet of 9/11.
But in India, nobody sheds a single tear
for the immense loss of life.
*Godhara is a place in Gujrat, India, where, in February 2002, petrol bombs were thrown at a train, killing a number of hapless people.
Tempest of Passion
Nasdaq index has dipped.
The body temperature has risen.
Imbalance between Celcius and Fahrenheit
has generated the heat.
My soul is anaemic
With the fury of sex.
My mind meditating on female body
My whole endeavour to influence the fair sex
My heart pining
To be the peer of nudity
Nasdaq index has dipped.
No sign of bullish trend.
Only the howling cries of bears.
Hey, bulls, come and oust this bear
Invading the stock-exchange of the soul.
Union Carbide pollutes the nature.
Pangs of womanhood make me totter.
Deforestation creating ecological imbalance
Her tender skin and ravishing beauty
make me lose my
patience.
My mind doomed to a certain death
My soul not hearing the song celestial
My voice unable to pray
My breathing system disturbed.
O Bosnian Serbs! do not cleanse the Muslim populace
Rather,come to this territory of my heart
And indulge in the act of purgation.
O Serbs, come immediately
else my Divinity
Will find it difficult to face my passion.
©2002 by Nilanshu Kumar Agarwal
Slow Trains, Volume 1 in print
