Thursday, July 11, 2013

Sorties

I

Monsoon evening trickles down
With smell of trash from open vats.
Seven O' clock.
Chewed up ends of bony days.
And now a surly breeze will wrap
Plastic sheets around your feet
From broken roofs and fallen tiles
Of grim shacks on barren tracks.
A naked urchin totters by.

And then the engine whistles on.

II

Morning peeps with uncertain feet
And wafts with the stale smell of urine on walls
In platforms with latrines unclean.
Here among hundreds of feet that are rushed
You stagger into coupes
Full of baskets of fish,
And mouthing your quips
On climates and cost,
Drowse as an old dog at noon.

III

You disclose your tab
From smooth leather flap
And finger through posts
That are heaped on your walls
With least bit of care
For the tear on your dress
Or for that man
Who bundles down stares
As a rat that has gobbled its cheese.

You finger your hair with humanoid limbs
And blast from your discs the loud latest fad
That drowns all the insistent voices that float
From bleak little rooms where you played.

IV

And all of these fragments of dolor and dross
Now rush into your streets and scatter
Along declining overbridge or tracks,
Remnants of faces that rose strong at dawn
And rotate as splinters of perforated cans
That groan as if skeletons in epileptic fits
With discord of perfected schizophrenic mime.

Step out of the wings and dance.
The world now'll mumble and tumble in dark
And snap all the circuits for fun!

18 comments:

Audrey Howitt aka Divalounger said...

I loved these little glimpses--your work just shines for me Abin!

NataĊĦek said...

I also loved these images... the feelings they leave.

Panchali said...

Ah, what a beautiful lament..!! Great job, Abin. Words and multiple Images give a great opportunity to create a masterpiece. Very well penned, as usual.

Mary said...

Your poetry is dense with imagery, Abin. And you use words as skillfully as a concert piano player working the piano keys!

Brian Miller said...

you caught several different aspects of life around you...from the naked urchin in the first to those that blindly follow the latest fad out into the streets...kept turning to see what i might see next...cool title too man...

Kerry O'Connor said...

I have yet to read a modern take on Eliot's Preludes as fine as this one. You have drawn from elements so familiar to us living in the first 1/4 of the 21st century, and this goes to show the ever-living quality of great poetry and 'a vision of the street as the street hardly understands'.

Vandana Sharma said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
PhotoDiction said...

So many wonderful images and emotions evoked in this one. I love the sentiment at the end especially, spreading wings and dancing...

Nissa Annakindt said...

Normally I don't like poems with latrines in them. But this poem very vividly showed me sights I do not normally see--- thank you.

rallentanda said...

Aha....shades of "The Love Song Of J Alfred Prufrok" by T S Eliot. You have emulated his style very convincingly.Well done!

Lisa A. Williams said...

Such strong and beautiful imagery, really enjoyed this!

Jennifer Wagner said...

Quite moving. Excellent writing Abin.

Sherry Blue Sky said...

I like the description of a monsoon evening......."chewed up ends of bony days"....LOVE "drowse as an old dog at noon"! "Step out of the wings and dance" - I love the busy street jumble of this poem, seen through the poet's eyes.

Grace said...

I like the verses, each capturing a mood of the day and night ~ My favorite part is the second one, the smells are sharp, yikes ~ Happy week to you from BC, smiles ~

LaTonya Baldwin said...

Moving, troubling, real. Love it.

Susie Clevenger said...

There is so much in this...With all the world uses to eat up its days I love how you end it...spread your wings and dance.

humbird said...

The world around you unrolled in such multiple details kaleidoscope, that I get thirsty to just read it again...thanks for pleasure...Abin

Marian said...

it's not every poem that you actually feel like you are walking through. that you can smell. and the galloping pace of this is really pleasing. excellent, Abin.