CHAKRAVYUH

Ramendra Kumar

(Submitted Nov 6, 1999)

(This poem is dedicated to the victims of the recent Orissa cyclone in India)

The heavens above

Showering

Their benediction

Ripping open

The entrails

Of

The world below.

Millions

Like maggots

Smothered and smudged

And finally

Posted

As statistics

In the collector's file.

A myriad eyes

Scanning

The inky skies

Praying for succour

Waiting....

Waiting....

In vain.

Caught between

Political rhetoric,

Bureaucratic apathy

And

Nature's unbridled fury;

The victims -

Like Abhimanyu

Fighting

To emerge

Alive

From the

Chakravyuh.