Real-time fiends
A black-bodied vehicle cruising
the dark street, 2 am-silence unnerving.
The tail lights glowing---
like the red eyes of a marauding ghoul!
On the gleaming tarmac,
Its tyres screech, startling an owl
in an abandoned warehouse nearby.
A bat leaves the broken Gothic turret
while the moon gets swollen by a ballooning cloud.
Drunk staggering somewhere, unsure
while a man gets knifed by the thugs
the bloody saga; the gore; entrails
being watched by the hustlers, bored.
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here---
A line boldly sprawled by a graffiti artist
on a wall with mottled green on the top.
Ruins.
Shut-down homes
factories
barbed wires, and,
strays---as the wolves.
Circles of inferno---
Dante
Virgil
Depicted on the other panel.
The occasional vagabond/migrant find
their own visages---reflected in the life-like painting!
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 14 books: four collections of poetry, two of
short fiction, one novel, one a critical study of the novel and
co-edited six anthologies on prose, poetry and criticism.
Incisive and deep rooted.A rewarding read.
ReplyDelete