To satiate the blind man’s curiosity

Sanjay speaks,

‘ At odd hours of the night

in the city

standing in semi-darkness

the poet is looking at

the garbages thrown in front of the closed shops

 

smelly raisins gravid with wine

tube lights piercing rotten mangoes

 

a howling dog

full Moon dominating city lights

 

an old cab

getting impossible to ignite

coughing in brief intervals

Khyanh…khyaaanh

 

Swearing filthily

every time as hitting the ignition

the driver getting more adamant

 

Homeless children sniffing

toxic adhesive

in plastic wrappers

tea stalls and momo stands

emitting clouds of steam

 

Grains of sand

tik- tok,  tik-tok

Drainage pipe

drip-drip, drip-drip

 

`It is a cheap bargain let’s go

morning almost´,

a cigarette-smelling whisper plea,

`I’ve forgotten where I have come from

nor where must I go do I remember

my name, everything

Lady, I forgot even what you just said

at this age,  memory, like all other possessions don’t serve

I beg your pardon ´

 

`Go to hell´, Yells

the same cigarette voice

 

Erected is

a towering physic

of a policeman

in front of the poor poet

With the jaw chewing Rajanigandhha

is spitting,` Who the hell are you ´

` A poet´, poetry mews

` A poet is no good than a hunted criminal, get into the van. ´

`No more room sir´, even salary argues

`Three escorts, two thieves, five beggars, where am I going to sit?´

 

`Get lost´, rajanigandha kisses his cheek, after a hard kick

at his battered ass

 

Now birds back to their karma

And the horizon in the east is looking reddish

as if the eternal groom putting vermillion at the centre partition of the hair of the bride

 

`And where are my sons? where are Pandu’s?

irritation of the blind man

never touches Sanjay

whispers,

` Gone old chap….gone…

long since

your wife put on a blindfold on her eyes ‘

 

` And let me say

Your sons are the emotions

Lord Pandu’s are the senses

and they are at

eternal war my Lord!´

 

`Ah! Sanjaya heavy feels in my chest

head mine a temple bell

I want my sons to win?´

what am I to do?´

` All of us  do that, my lord!´

but if you seek a remedy

handing you the one

would be my pleasure.´

 

‘ Just repeat

a sacred mantra

as sacred as OM Namah Shivaya. ´

 

‘ Just repeat

I don’t give a fuck

and keep on repeating

and one day you will

become god.

 

God never gives a fuck

about anything.´

 

But the maidens of this palace

are meant to be conceived by them.´

 

`Those are dreams, my lord!´

`amazing though it might be

even a blind man is capable to dream!´

`Wait no! Only a blind man

is capable to dream.´

twin demons fight

inside the skull of the watcher

as his teeth shine

on the mirrored wall.

 

`What is going on

at the field of Dharma?´

blind man’s curiosity, perpetual

 

` The army led by Rama

has won the battle

against the mighty Ravana.

 

The band of questions, the pyre

The demand for truth,  the fire

 

Sita, refusing the fire test

and then the monkeys

witnessing

the epic separation

 

`Talk sense o Sanjay

what Rama what fire test!

fire is what that is inside me ´

my sons! Sanjaya!! my sons!!!

you talk about them, could you?´

 

`How great it would be my Lord

if we could just

talk silence!

 

 

`You kept unfolding

past and future only

Present and about my sons

I beg you! ´ blind man the beggar king

 

`You were never a fuck giver to the present my Lord, your dynasty, your clan, always caught in past and future.

but you wished to

listen then O Lord!´

 

Fire is what a watcher sees

Fire is what a watcher spits

 

Drona, cutting his thumb

Eklavya’s necklace

and history ceasing

to be a Guru

 

Krishna, running fiercely

through the battlefield

followed by

heads dropping like hailstones

and a

mad and red Draupadi

with a bowl in her hand

 

running, shouting, screaming

 

filling her bowl with

and drinking

blood

 

 

` My sons?´

 

`All got killed, my lord

yet they will remain forever.

 

They were here

when you were not.

 

They were manifested through you

and they will be

When you will be not.

 

In the future and

in the distant future

Grandest of your sons

the immortals of Kurukshetra.

 

Time flows

time changes

but on  the space

even a tiny dot

can’t be tinged

as change

and space is where

all the shapes are formed.´

 

` Why am I O Sanjaya

unable to understand

Most of your sayings?´

 

` That’s because my Lord,

To have eyes,

Not to have eyes,

and to have eyes that can see things through the veil of time,

are three different conditions.

we have a

deep and broad abyss

in between you and me.´

 

` O Sanjay! Though I don’t have eyes

and seeing I do

through other’s eyes,

I still love this luxury

whatever there is to see

I can buy, borrow, beg or snatch

in this way, I may remain blind

but not ignorant.´

 

` No seer can communicate

what he saw to a blind man my Lord!

there is no way

to translate

eyes and light

into the language

of darkness.´

 

`  You just define the darkness Sanjaya

I will then understand the light.´

 

` Absence of light is, O Lord

Darkness,

the darkness needs light

to be formed

as good needs bad.´

 

` I am only concerned with my sons and their victory, their existence

you made my heart sink

by telling me they are gone

and at the same time

soothed it telling

they are eternal.´

 

` proof of the existence of

darkness is

never soothing

past, present or future

or distant future

it always fosters the snakes, demons

and ghosts.´

 

Ghosts in the Era of science dominance

and Zero Illiteracy? ‘

 

` Yes my Lord

factories will manufacture them

science is not against them

science and education, actually

foster them

beside you

 

`And they in the distant future? ghosts?´

 

`Yes my Lord

Your sons

the ghosts

ever-present

 

listen

 

robotic hands

squeezing the throats of

men

pregnant with god

 

at the same time

Brahma the creator himself

chopping off his genitals

so that he is no more lusting

own mind-born daughter

 

So

one- third of the feminine club

taking deep sigh

as they no longer remain

the victim

and one-third of them are then committing suicide

as

they no longer want to live with

men with

Chopped off genitals

 

and one-third of them don’t mind

as they already have removed

their wombs

 

Love and honesty have been declared

the crimes that attract

the capital punishment

 

rapist and exploiters getting

standing ovation for their past deeds

 

lovers being executed

as their heartbeats

sound different

 

and

Buddhas taking tuition classes

from university grads

who later will

put their signature on the certificates

of Buddhahood.’

 

Here Sanjay concludes by adding,

‘ This is all o lord that is going on

in the land of Dharma

whatever you want will never happen the way you want

and what you want is better not happen.’

 

And  there in the field of  Dharma

the blind man still waits for the answers to the questions he never asked

fed up with the answers to the questions he doesn’t care.