Paying Toll For The Road To Hell Poem by Rajendra Prasad

No flower blooms and laughs
Inside Githa, Quran and Bible
Cities of Mecca, Vatican and Kashi
Do not emanate fragrance
Babbling mantras do not save
Devotees squashed under chariot wheels
or those who died
Making rounds of Qaba or at St Peter's square
Why, then?
What did they do, what can they do?
They looted bodies of women
They rode on a poor man's back
They gulped down lives of believers, in careful measures

Now a poisonous tornado
Invades, envelopes our land and water
Fiery merciless darkness,
Leaving behind a closed trial of handful of ashes.

Believe me, my friend
Walking under the shade of Githa, Quran and Bible
Is the toll we pay on our way to hell.



English Translation by Tina Shashikanth