BARABATI  FORT IN RUINS

Looking from here,

this  blind alley

seems to stagger out

into  unending chaos;

biting the ancient earth

under burden of dead leaves, cow-dung

fish-scales, flowers and filth;

blotches of spittle on its hardened  face

hide clots of blood under the surface.

Look how it claws at

senseless wheels of civilization

to assume a modern face;

with shameless cracks all over

lolls out its cancerous tongue

to nip the tips

of the dying aspirations of our day.

They say long back

the princess walked on

its bare subconscious layer

storming the waters

of a placid river

flaming the moon

to jealous cries

maddening the rose

to break head

in lovers’ half-shut drunken eyes;

drawing swords from flanks

to clank and spell

the tragedy of true love

in syllables of metallic sighs.

Tonight as I look at

the spectre of the princess’s hair

dangling from the moon’s bruised face

with clouds propping her aged body

see how her half-crazed smile

mocks our broken love;

in the whispers of these muted

stones of Barabati

sound but the suicidal wind’s

cry of a trampled dove;

and on the ebony of this sad night

the dead telephone wires

woo the splinters of beams

in a hot ecstasy of hasty love

only to end up in simmering screams.

The street’s darkening body

tries to hide the contours

of our sad love

under the blanket of a whorish night

when hard cash

decides hours for skin’s  over-valued fight

buying false hearts

on way to a short labyrinthine flight.

The street bleeds here

in the shadows of a late moonless night

in its wounds of betrayed breath

echoing in its secret cave

the hollow whispers of false men

wedded to the clang of coins

thrown by  hands aloof

to beggars at noon.

Dogs howl here

in the shadows of spiritless love,

cuckoos  repeat sad refrains

for still-born mangoes

that drop at the death-touch

of the last super cyclone

that killed many

and still kill many more

with its oft-repeated

sounds of fright

from the bay’s near shore.

Comp. n copy right:

Saroj k. padhi

01/09/14