Where Dwelleth thou

a poem by Sivasundari Bose

Have men lost their reason
and Justice fled to the beasts?

Brigands and blackmailers
weave incredible nets,
To ensnare artistes and barter for terrorists.

What demons live amidst us
What ogres that roast girls alive?

Politics, you say?
Nay, egomania to the hilt.
And rank sycophancy
of some crawling vermin,
scoundrels who can lock students in a tin box-
-and set fire to it.

Three mothers roast in their own agony
and festering grief.

Gaud!

To forever hear those last laments
and the screams of suffocation…
…all captured by the media.

The media
that builds up these monsters
and gives them a dozen arms.

The papers that hike sales.
Splashing
the faces of criminals
crass looters and bootleggers

In page after page, day after day.

The media
that fattens these marauders
and feasts upon them.

Justice!
Where dwelleth Thou?

In the heart of unborn babes
In the folds of unfurled ferns
Or in the bottom of virgin brooks?

Is there no deliverance
for the decent in this land?