Factory Of Discontent Poem by Prabhakar Subramaniam

How many times
Will I find myself lost like this
In a dream bordering on a nightmare.
This is not inside my factory
Which manufactures discontent
In three shifts
This is a five-star hospital
Where I am looking
For the exit
I do not trust anyone to ask
For fear of being misled
Then wander into a wedding hall,
(Now, hospitals are all multi-purpose) ,
Where a provocative politician
is calling an icon
Of the rival camp
The choicest names
Hoping to polarise votes
For the next election
The audience greets
His hate speech
With unrestrained glee
Among the crowd
I see the neighbour
Who is in hiding
After being accused
Of eating prohibited meat
By cow protectors
Who also double as moral police
What better place to be underground
Than in a dream, where a hospital
Is also a mall, a restaurant, a cinema
A wedding hall where speakers
Instead of blessing newlyweds
Curse their opponents
And their progeny
The absconding enemy of the cows
Points the way out to me
With sad, bovine eyes.