Two Poems

Vyapam

That you can smile and smilw and be a villain (Hamlet)

 

People die all the time; it is

The way of all flesh.

So what does it matter how they

Died, or continue to die.

Such silly things cannot possibly

Occupy the attention of the highest

In the government, not to speak

Of the routine little corruptions

That may have informed some

Murderous intent. What is of

Greater danger to the country

Is the sad fact that the media

Should suddenly become so

Vociferous a participant in

An oppositional conspiracy to

Distract the great leader from

His imperial determination to

Win over nation after nation.

After all, the Indians who matter

Live abroad; the bulk of what we

Have at home is inconsequential sod.

You say Vyapam has a scale

Which boggles the mind; well, we

Are flattered indeed; it only

Means we can beat the Congress

At their own kind. You say please

Resign if you are a true Ram Bhakt,

Since Lord Ram did to Sita what

He did at a hint from mere

Washerman; well, that was then;

This here is Kalyug, and who is to

Say were the Lord among us today,

He may not have thought that one

Over again in deference to good

Governance. What ignorant fools

Do not know is that Scriptures,

Which are for eve, nonetheless

Mean different things be you

In or out of power. Thus, Raj

Dharam allows no easy copout

From the responsibility to shield

From the fakeries of the law

Those who so vast an enterprise

Have brought about. We

Will stay the course till all the

Perpetrators disappear, leaving

Us and our realm in the clear.

Athens Again, 2015

Athens, from your ancient loins

You engendered Europe.

Mussolini and the Reich dismantled

Your doing, letting Uncle Sam

To gobble her up.

The dollar became her enchanter,

Instead of Rus and the Red Army

Who shed most of the blood.

But now Socrates and Pericles

Are back, setting the polis free

To answer exploitive centralism

With good old democracy.

Whatever be the consequence

For now, Athens, know that you

Have struck a historic blow

For life-infusing resistance.

However the oppressor may

Pull the monetary string, you

Have brought the little people

Back into the reckoning.