Mumbai Blasts

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I'll not write
about the Mumbai blasts.

I'll only
write about the fifty pigeons that died

and the fakir who used to feed them grain

by the Taj
International

who was blasted away,

 and how the  birds,

 they died of hunger and sorrow.

I'll make only
a passing reference to the paupers,

the begging children,

the drug hawkers and the sex workers out on an afternoon

stroll and all about Boxer

the handsome stray dog that used to come for his snooze

 at about 1.00 p.m. daily  with his head

 upon the lap of The Gateway of India,

who has now vanished without a trace.

He  was  a
true lover of man….

Thank you,
godmen,

for your  praise for the Koran & The Gita,

 seconds before 
 your  sudden  afternoon
shower,

before  the RDX ripped

the  anemic pregnant woman

                                       flaying a
 sudden piece of  embryo

                                       in its small pool of blood,

                                       at the
lit feet of  smiling,

                                       Mumbai Devi.

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27.0pt;line-height:150%">The
poem  ‘Mumbai Blasts’,  was written following the
bomb  blasts
in taxis at The Gateway of India in 2003, which purportedly  were in reaction to the Godhra events in
Gujarat.  The reference to Mumbai Devi stems from a related
happening in the temple in Mumbai city dedicated to the goddess of Mumbai. The Hindus
encourage worship of deities named after   their
villages who, they believe, protect the 
village and the people. Mumbai, in pre British India was a fishing
village. The poem has references to connected life events, though in symbolic
ways, that followed the bomb blasts.  

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