GIRIJA KUMAR MATHUR
Rendered from Hindi by Dr. Ravi
A palpable noise envelopes me
a tangible crowd engulfs me
this dreadful din and
noisome mass make life a midden.
Each convenience makes
me feel stranger
and engrossing engagements
make me a lone traveller.
How to extricate myself
from this dinning crowd and awful loneliness?
Alleys are all blind
and majority has diseased mind
the drunken humanity
sways with frenzy wild.
The villainous are crowned as heroes
and the virtuous condemned as cowards
the few that are honest and upright
are tightly bound in mighty chains.
How to overthrow
this shamming faith and deceptive assurance?
All arguments are unsound
and conclusions all unkind
skeletons arrayed in a row and
draped in raiment of faith.
The intellects invalid
watch them agape, moonstruck.
How to pierce through
argument and dispel ignorance?
God resides in everyone
but has shrivelled
into a craven pansy
and the beast in us
bloated into a menacing demon.
Each act of godliness
renders us more impotent
and the demoniac
breeds sub-humans galore
How can we call a halt
to the demon treading on the heels of God?