REAL
LIFE CIRCUS
-
Manas Bakshi (India)
Clowns in a circus crack jokes,
Make the spectators laugh.
Swamped by the wind of change
The tents without animals
Now look different: lack-lustre and sullen---
Animals're relieved a bit-- it's proclaimed,
An arena sans animals incomplete for a game
-- it's lamented.
Cruelty to animals --caged or stray--
continues everywhere,
Mockery of animal rights too
When chained pets are whipped to be trained;
Another circus is going on in the name of election,
Criminals unleashed for rigging and vote loot
At the behest of political figures
Switching sides at the drop of a hat!
Why then at those-- in real life not jokers
We're still prompted to laugh?
Tear off the mask,
Say 'No' to unreal jestures--
It's all fudging with a soulful episode:
Sorrows and sufferings
Suppressed with feigned rainbow colours
Behind the real gloom
Of depressing dusk.
****