Poetry

The Rain and The Virus

Monsoon rain gushes down, endlessly,

Heavens open,

Engulfing the city in its watery fury.

There is no cleansing ; just roaring putrid

Waters flooding the streets.

Swirling sewerage from

The open drains

Overflowing –

Taking with its watery fury the

Disposable masks,

Carelessly discarded,

Cardboard boxes and corrugated sheets

Served as homes.

The boy shivers and trembles,

His disposable mask,

Picked up from the street,

Worn and discarded by someone-

Still clings to his chin,

In a soggy mess.

His mother, mask less, covers him with her saree,

As she nurses her baby.

They crumple together on the steps of a closed temple,

Heavens and man have shut them out.

Their corrugated sheets of shelter,

Swept away by the angry rain.

They just had one box to sleep in

Covered by just one corrugated sheet.

No box to isolate,

From the ravage of the rain and virus.

Now they just have the open sky.

 

The man in his five bedroom house

Curses the rain,

The pandemic,

The lockdown,

The stay at home orders,

To be flouted- in arrogance.

The designer special masks,

He hates to wear.

An inconvenience!

He only worries about-

Water rising on his well trimmed acres of lawn,

Fenced in by high walls.

And closed gates.

Boundaries.

One man and his five bedrooms.

He watches as the rain pelters down,

Hitting against the polished glass of his

Bungalow’s designer windows.

He worries about –

The gushing waters on

His manicured lawns-

Of the other five houses he has

In the city,

Empty colosseum,

A museum of treasures,

He never needs,

But guards.

His roof stand firm against –

The rain.

But not the virus, yet.

 

All men are born equal-

All emerge naked,

From their mother’s wombs.

Yet,

After the rains,

A boy will search –

For a cardboard box to sleep in.

A mask to wear,

When he begs on the street.

And the man will search,

Through the five bedrooms

For sleep.

 

Unaware, that to the virus all are equal.

Within and without, the walls we erect.

How many bedrooms does a man need to sleep?

How many houses does he need?

To shelter his one head.

 

 

                                                          ~Kakoli Mitra

                                                            Calgary, Canada

2 Comments

  1. Aruna Dasgupta

    It is beautifully expressed! So glad to know her as a friend.

  2. Payal Bose Biswas

    A common story of the common public of any nation still engulfed with poverty