THE TOMBSTONE

They didn’t listen in their life the

Scream of lesser destiny’s child,

The adolescent dreams which

Were crushed under the leg of

Muscled pimps, pain of eyes, the

Depression of abdominal flame,

The skeleton of that rickshaw

Puller, who tried to pull the life,

Died in tuberculosis last evening,

They never wanted to know the

Emotion of that maid servant, who

Lured by employer, browbeaten -

Several times forced to auction,

The children who played near the

Under construction, helping the

Parents in the stone quarries, those

Faces who worked in the café, late

Night, forget to smile since infancy,

The goons changed their gender

Accordingly their need, they never

Laughed by heart whole the life, in

The midnight wept silently to see

The sky with full of stars, moon, the

Morning not at all recognized them,

In the railway platform the old

Man with inclined backbone has had

Given the address of various train,

He was not at all reached to the

Desired destination, life has been

Left him, only to carry the luggage of

Strangers, gazing the passing trains,

Life passed in its way, nobody waits for

Them, growing weeds of graveyard

Had lot of saga to say but tombstone

Remained dead silent, they dried,

While roses were touched the maturity,

• SHANTANU SANYAL