Two protest poems, on the ongoing Farmers’ Protest, by Dr Piku, exclusively for Different Truths.

Lambs

Tender earth caressed with love
Of a constant gardener, watering the
Diffident germinating seeds
With sweat and drops of blood each day.
The gentleness of the lamb
That nurtures, nourishes, feeds the world
Like invigorating golden rays
That kisses the tips of golden wheat.
Bewildered the wheat fields lie
With the slaughtered lamb's last cry,
Pristine blood spilled in the haze
Of winter fog and listless gaze
Of moistened earth in bereavement
Of gentle farmers lost to lust
And complex prosaic manipulations.

Lions

Flames of fury, resilience
Defying cold and suppression –
Lions emerge in ruthless nooks
Of a hegemonic circus of power.
Jungle of concrete skyscrapers
Revels in might and naked parade
Of invading arms that sport with laws
Throttling birds in migration.
That concrete jungle slaughters lambs
With words that swirl in perversion,
Buffoons here don such masks of might
Smirking bare at rending cries.
The lions return with royal roars
From the verdant fields and dreams,
Lions blaze like tropical sun
Righteous, strong, unrelenting.
Will they redeem the maimed, numbed soil?
Charge it to a resurrection?

Visual by Different Truths

Dr Piku Chowdhury

Academician, poet, author of nine books and many research articles in international journals, translator, editor, mental health facilitator, Dr Piku Chowdhury has acted as resource person in many national and international seminars and workshops and has published poems in Borderless, Setu, Lyrical Passion, Ode to a Poetess, Countercurrents, Techtouchtalk, Indian Journal, RJOE, StoryMirror, DestinyPoets, Bharat Vision, Countercurrents and many more.