Here is an angry poem, by Dr. Sunil. He is enraged at the plight of the people dying in hordes and utter neglect in this pandemic. An exclusive for Different Truths.
Once sylvan, the city’s innards remain wounded and critical; bleed profusely. Darkness descends. The sun disappears, furies are out, and ghosts released into the shadows, near the River of the Sighs; soft moans heard now distinctly, above the noise. The streets becoming, open-air funeral sites, the heavy air pierced by the gasping of the dying, and cries of the orphans and the bereaved, walking in haze. Grief and death go hand-in-hand; anger muted. The tortured faces, praying hearts, helpless eyes – it is inferno, real time – new kind of living in a costly hell, 2021. The fires were few earlier, slow-burning, sad, silent, unseen, in corners, away from the public gaze, now livid, hungry, these orange creatures rage across the streets, golden ogres gone mad, huge bellies and insatiable carnivorous appetites; the massive blazes roll down the avenues and royal paths, once trodden by the colonial masters, and, now by the native lords. The conflagration, wild, uncontrollable, fuelled by the whispers of the dead, dying and in mourning, this fierce, red-eyed monster threatens to engulf the Forest of Deep Silence around the towers and slums and destroy it totally, suddenly, by cleaving a long passage, with the multiple fiery tongues, and soon, will reach the outer perimeters of the Citadel of the Iron King and his Council playing dice, and smash the thick, one-way mirrors and the stony walls that prevent them to see and hear the general anguish, pain and mayhem, being unleashed by the hour, across the murky landscape, a collage of white shrouds and broken hearts and homes. Infernal places do not fade easily. Infernos slow and long and melt solidities. The dead shall rise up again from the assigned margins, seizing centrality in the power narratives. …and then the storm will erupt from the dim underworld, demolishing every barrier in its route upward!
Visual by Different Truths
A humble word-worshipper: catcher of elusive sounds, meanings and images. Published 27 creative and critical books— joint and solo. A winner of, among others, the Panorama Golden Globe Award-2023, and, Nissim Award for Excellence-2022 for the novel Minotaur. His poems were included in the prestigious UN project: Happiness: The
Delight-Tree: An Anthology of Contemporary International Poetry, 2015.
Editor of the monthly Setu journal (English):
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