☛ October, 2024 issue (Vol. 5, No. 2) will be published on 10 November, 2024 (Sunday).

THE RECIPROCATION

 


THE RECIPROCATION

-         R. Nappinnai (India)

 

“Hey, let’s give you a makeover”, they enticed.

“Let you be glazed, brightened and made appealing”, they allured.

“Let you be fast n furious”, they wheedled.

Did they wait for my nod?

Fell were my trees;

Closed were my waterways;

Attired was I with radiating tarmac.

“Beautiful! Exact! Perfect!” – Their satisfied utterances.

 

“Hey, you’re unbearably hot nowadays”, they ranted.

You’re nasty, stinking and suffocating”, they slurred.

“Why can’t you give us water?” they angrily quizzed.

“We never wanted this deluge”, they lamented.

“You’re selfish”, they accused

amidst the wizzing and woozing, amidst the blaring horns,

amidst the felled trees,

amidst the stinking plastic waste.

Mute and silent and accepting,

I reciprocate what I am given.

****