Poison
Poison
does not necessary lie in a serpent’s body
that
gleams as a dappled rope twisting in the warm wind on a highway distant.
It
lies in the eyes and the tongues
smiles
and words inflicted by your own
in
the family, work place and neighbourhood under e- surveillance.
Sweet
poison!
manufactured
by the civilized and educated within.
That
is why, the bearded and monocled guy says, he quit the cushy job in Mumbai
and
adopted snakes as his life-long friends.
And
no regrets!
At
least, they do not sting, unless provoked.
And
his NGO is doing a fine work with the urbanites
by
demolishing many myths around the reptiles with forked tongues and scales
and
glittering eyes that inspire dread among the citizens as it they had seen the
death.
In
fact, many snakes saved, except the ones roaming freely in faded jeans
and
Tees and eating burgers undisturbed, while half-clad kids from adjacent slums
hungrily stare at the loaded tables and munching mouths from the outside,
often
shooed away half-hearted by an underpaid security man in baggy pants.
Mumbai-based, Sunil
Sharma, a college principal, is also widely-published
Indian critic, poet, literary interviewer, editor, translator, essayist
and fiction writer. He has already published three collections of
poetry, one collection of short fiction, one novel and co-edited five books so
far. His six short stories and the novel Minotaur were recently
prescribed for the undergraduate classes under the Post-colonial Studies,
Clayton University, Georgia, USA. He is a recipient of the UK-based Destiny
Poets’ inaugural Poet of the Year award---2012.
He edits online journal
Episteme:
well done, Sunil. . .
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