Death staring on the face

by Ananya S. Guha / July 19th, 2020

He tried to draw his mother’s attention
as she lay on the railway station
without food and water in the train
He could not have understood what
was dehydration, hunger he could
he tried pulling the bed sheet
covering his mother
He surely did not understand death
He understood his mother as she was
His mother only
Not death
This is what is happening to our migrant
workers in Covid times and their families
Food and water bare necessities
Food and water not served in trains
Which have become a funeral of the dead
The two year old does not understand
Though death stares at him in the face.

Ananya S Guha lives in Shillong in North East India, where he was born and brought up. He has been writing and publishing his poetry for the last forty years. His poetry has been published in both electronic and print formats such as: Indian Literature, Other Voices, Osprey Journal, Glasgow Review, The Literary Nest, Up The Staircase, Asia Writes, Art Arena, Praxis Online, Muse India, Your One Phone Call, In Between Hangovers, The Peeking Cat Magazine, Post Colonial Text among others. He has also written widely on educational and social matters. He has ten collections of poetry and his poetry has been anthologized in various collections of Indian poetry in English. He holds a doctoral on the novels of William Golding. Read other articles by Ananya S..

This article was posted on Sunday, July 19th, 2020 at 8:02am and is filed under Poetry.