Death, The New Squatter
written by: Chaitali Sengupta
@Chaital59764003
The long shriek of the ambulance
tears through the blood-soaked night,
hollering the language of the dead;
a city gasps for breath,
tearing at seams,
it has a new squatter
on its abandoned streets. Death is his name.
Masked, he runs hunting down his preys,
in millions, smacking them
like buzzing flies, dwarfing down their egos.
Writhing his hands, he eyes the nooks and crannies,
his ears giving a miss to the lamenting cries.
Feasting on our loved ones,
taking their souls
in accelerating rhythm,
he breathes in their helpless vapor,
now consumed.
Sitting at the hilltop,
like a carrion crow,
he watches his deceased preys,
prostrate, clumped together, on bright pyres,
with last tears pooling on their dead eyes,
and their souls, dissolved in smoke.
He watches on,
as the milky river surges furiously
crammed with bloated bodies
in the murky depths of her water.
Water- their tomb, unifying them, above their caste and creed.
Wiping his mouth, with a flouting grin,
and a peal of full throated laughter, he hums into the air,
and we wait, short of breath,
with our cold lungs,
in the darkened deserts
of the extinguished souls,
watching Time count its beads.
- Death, The New Squatter - October 12, 2021
- Another Ganga - February 23, 2021
