Flamingos in Early Summer Nobody thought In the terrible days of solitude, Herds of jobless migrants with clay brick masks would Sudden...
Flamingos in Early Summer
Nobody thought
In the terrible days of solitude,
Herds of jobless migrants with clay brick masks would
Suddenly arrive in the deserted city.
With them, the Armenian flamingos
Also descended; flock after flock
In the maggoty shadows of early summer.
From their sweaty pink wings,
Dry mustard leaves kept falling
In the freshly made shelter homes.
Flapping their empty stomachs,
Slowly, they filled the sky
With their hungry nasal cries for food and water.
Infuriated with the smell of infectious blood
Affluent city dwellers turned against themselves-
Speaking with strange voices of stones
In their moments of self-survival.
Victorious Virus
Where are the men and women,
Washing, ironing dirty clothes at the Dhobi Ghat?
Where are the daily wagers and prisoners
Lavishing praise on lawmakers for their miseries?
Where are the laborious ants, and lazy rabbits
Slumbering in the holes of solitude?
Where are the lovers and travelling souls
Clearing imported land-mines in the streets?
Where are the days and nights
Polishing our shoes for May Day parade?
We all must stay in the house, dark confinement.
It is useless to protest.
Submit to the funeral speech of the victorious virus!
Zebras at the Ration-Shop
Grains are in short supply
Salt and sugar in abundance.
I am the only hungry person
Standing in this long queue.
The rest are affluent, and healthy.
They offer Botox sympathy for my wrinkled skin.
And zero-dollar petroleum oil for my kitchen.
Come next day
Stand in the long queue like an obedient ghost,
The rest are all zebras with your stripes and mine.
Shades of Lockdown
In a sudden invasion
an invisible pathogen infects air sacs,
and paralyses all forms of life on the earth.
Latching on its spiky surface proteins,
behaving licentiously,
It multiplies itself,...
