7 December 2011

I

There was no light last night because of load-shedding
And today we have no light and we don't know why
We don't know why there is light at all
We could have done without it in all;
So we gathered at the club tonight
We don't know why we gathered at the club
We just gathered there
And gabbed, and we don't know why but we gabbed.


II

In total darkness
Red and buttless cigarette lights punctuated the obscurity
Whispers and voices sprinkled the tuneless melody

As I had been away from home, my friends narrated
The stories of time, past forward and future backward:
of a local gambling den,
How the dilapidated government school had changed into;
of the several rehabilitation centres,
Where there are new meanings of addiction;
of a government so lifeless,
Which we should be electing to power again;
of a life so listless;
Is it why this December is so dispirited?


III

The flowers of discontent are blooming
while we withered unscrupulously;
The pawn is colliding with mortgages,
Houses and land are going up for sale.

When I was heading back for home later
I was choked with dust from the potholed road
I gasped and grabbed my poetry for some breath
And a Moreh torchlight led me through the darkness.

Hello, hello, Imphal here!