Delhi Weeps Poem by Biswajit Basu

In the corner of my eye wells up a bubble bright and red,
As my blank face stares back from the mirror crack’d,
Bursting crimson, rolls down my anguished cheeks,
Tears of blood in sorrow shed.

I cry bloody tears because now we have beastly grown,
Reached a nadir we had never reached before,
Though Delhi never has been violence free,
We have now reached morbid depths unknown.

Fate has never let Delhi peaceful be,
A city sacked by many from northern realms,
Who repeatedly put to sword its denizens poor,
Their blood flowing to River Yamuna and thence to sea.

Many a cruel sword has flashed murderously down,
On poor and defenseless human life,
But this violence has never been so profound,
As in these unholy days that wracks this town.

Quite unlike those hoary years of old,
Those ancient skirmishes and campaigns fought,
When men in senseless battles did fall,
History treating them in a honourable mould.

Bad it is when invaders raze a city so proud,
Merely to win a passing vainglorious sway,
But worse to nurture a serpent in your breast,
Mistaking him for a friend in the milling crowd.

Invading armies done with their murderous tasks,
Have left us long back, being dead and gone,
But from their ashes rise a breed of subhumans now,
Grotesque faces behind leering masks.

Hidden faces concealing hearts that claw,
Sulphide sweat oozing from their fevered brow,
No anguish for the young life snuffed out,
Plotting now to somehow escape the law.

Legion are those peers of the Devil in this city do merge,
Amongst the teeming millions that in Delhi throngs,
But here even the Devil must feel insecure,
Lest he become a victim to the rapists maniacal urge.

But even the Devil will deny them a place to rest,
So after the gallows where will they dwell?
While raped children severed brutally from their soul,
If perchance they survive-consigned to an earthly hell.

My friends of Delhi, have we mutely accepted this blow,
That we must stand by and watch this violence unleashed,
While our city in sorrow, sheds a bloodstained tear,
Hoping desperately for a saner tomorrow?