Lawful Protest

Laws are made to
Make life easy

But what if they rob you
Of your dreams and
Torment your soul?

What if they portray
A bleak future
Where you may starve?

What if laws take away
From you your produce and give
Mockery of fair price in return?

What if…
What if…
What if…

Then the farmers decide
To march in Capital City on
Republic Day

They are now sitting under
The bare sky braving biting cold
To lay a siege to the unholy Union

Then they decide to fight till death!

• Author’s note:  Farmers in India have been agitating under the bare sky at the outskirts of the Capital City for days now. They want the scrapping of the anti-farmer laws and a guarantee of the continuation of the Minimum Support Price system currently in vogue. The Supreme Court of India, in a judgment, has put new agri-laws on hold and formed a panel to break the impasse. However, the unhappy farmers have decided to march in the Capital City in support of their demand on the Republic Day, January 26.

Pranab Ghosh is a journalist, writer, poet, translator and blogger. His blog is “Existential Problems”. His poems and prose have been published by several on=line publications including Dissident Voice, Spillwords, The Piker Press, Setu Magazine, Pangolin Review, Visual Verse, etc. Pranab has coauthored a book of poems, titled Air & Age; a translation of a book of Bengali short stories, “Bougainvillea and Other Stories” (English translation title). His second book of poems and first solo book, “Soul Searching and Other Poems” (2017), was published by Scarlet Leaf Publishing, Toronto. His second collection of poems, “Vision of the World and Other Poems”, was published by Impspired.com in November 2020. Read other articles by Pranab.