The curfew time is on.
The night sky has soaked up even the last rays
From the loose end of the sun-bathed city;
Quiescent death descends. In the city’s veins I perceive
The ruthless death of reptiles in the epileptic forests
Of Kaziranga and Doboka … a serpentine life;
Each day is a fugitive — the neon-lit evening’s
Red and blue pallid face
Hangs on Hena Madhubala and Alakananda

    ***

Streets and bylanes, alleys and avenues
Remain dark with dumb agonies
The serpent of slippery death slithers past under the feet
(Light, where’s light)
The throbs of throttling traffic afar
Bring complex anxieties of fear and hope;
(In the forest the eyes of tigers and fishing-cats glow)

Life scrapes by. Yet it survives.
And so do the riddles of the alleys of livelihood
We’re the offsprings of ambrosia
Drenched in death, O’ city !