The sky was black,
pitch black.
It floated over my head,
like a boat,
carrying corpses.
But it was not the darkness
I was afraid of.
It was the occasional
flashes of light.
The tenth of a second,
when the world is visible,
when darkness abandons you–
In light.
In the first flash,
I saw a pyre,
burning red–
on the banks of Ganges.
Vultures,
turning in a widening gyre.
For her, there is no second coming.
The next flash came soon.
Darkness was mercilessly stolen,
And into my eyes rushed,
the lean figures of people,
walking barefoot on
tarred roads.
Some, like dried flowers,
fell into the belly of the Earth.
The sky flashed again.
And as violet smeared the sky,
I saw a railway track smeared in blood.
Rotis scattered,
Dream shattered.
I cried for darkness,
but tears did not bring her back.
Roaring in light, the dark sky opened again.
Light flowed into the Earth,
like a stream from the heavens.
In it, I saw tears,
hunger, and anger.
Sickles on streets,
Poems in jail.
In it, in the last flash of light,
I saw my world,
crumble into pieces.
Gokul GK is a graduate of Asian College of Journalism and is currently working as Assistant Manager, Outreach and Communications, Wildlife Conservation Society – India.
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