I
walked down the old steps
Last
night
Into
the city
Waiting.
Past
the old houses that were before I was
Past
tall buildings where trees once grew,
I
walked down into the city.
The
buildings crowded around me
Towering,
Fancy
cars parked outside,
Skin
of brick and mortar,
Bones
of concrete and steel,
Opaque
to view, hiding the things within –
The
wires overhead crossed the streets
Bringing
light and heat, bringing stories
Of
what lies politicians told,
Of
which celebrity slept with whom
And
who just began another war,
And
the people sat watching soap operas
Cricket
games,
And
clucked to each other about the state of the world.
Down
into the city
Past
the buildings where fathers came to their daughters’ rooms at night
And
stifled their soft cries with hard hands
Past
alleys where women dragged by their hair
Had
knives held to their throats. Call the police?
Only
if they want to make things a thousand times worse.
So,
avert your eyes and move on.
I
walked down into the city.
Something
wrapped in a tattered blanket whined at me, held out a hand
Man,
woman, old or child – impossible to understand
Faceless,
eyeless, yet alive, yet burning with
The
yearning to carry on.
What
can I do? Give it a coin? What good will my coin do?
What
good can I do? Can I give it a life? A home?
“Go
away, I have no change.”
Avert
my eyes and carry on.
Here
the bright lights, the restaurants leak music,
Boy
and girl kissing under a tree, romantically
Dressed
in clothes made by slaves in sweatshops
In a
town not unlike this
Not
far away in this world.
Skeleton
kissing skeleton
Each
thinking their own thoughts,
A
flicker of love, perhaps, perhaps not
To
be snuffed out like a candle in the wind.
Down
I walked into the city.
Down
to the marketplace, where chickens and fish gasp out their lives on blocks
Blood
spraying to prove how fresh they are;
Avid
customers watch
And
haggle, while the world goes by
And
someone scrapes for food in a dustbin
Someone’s
mother, someone’s son.
Down
I walked into the city, to the dark river
The poisoned dark river
Strangled with the poisons of the world;
I
slipped gratefully into the dark river
Welcoming
with its cold, wet embrace
To carry me away
Far away.
And
I woke –
Arms
reaching out,
Crying
calling
To
emptiness and silence.
Perhaps
the river
Was
too much happiness
To
hope for.
Copyright B Purkayastha 2015
