Where Is That Snug Universe? Poem by Santosh Bakaya

Where is that snug universe
when the grave, new world unfurling around me
screams and bellows violently
my mind keeps going back
to that tiny, mischievous little girl
wayward as a truant curl,
who found a bounty in nothingness
in her snug universe where it rained nothing but good cheer.
Drenched in the unending cascade of love
when red was just the colour of a rose.

So was the hibiscus flower
Blood- red.
And the red nose
of ungainly Santa Claus throbbed with joy unalloyed.

So many years down the line, I watch horror- struck
as scary shadows loom.
Tiny saplings quiver, too petrified to bloom.
The skies rain hatred, and red is the colour
the streets are drenched in.
across the contours of a world slightly blurred
I see a scared, uncaged bird,
fluttering its wings, its trills killed, its exuberance stilled.