Contrasts Poem by Daniel Trevelyn Joseph

Luxuriant growth of mangroves
Reflected shadows on still silent waters
Of Mithi river, edged by huge black pipe
On one side, and the row of slumstructures
Of Dharavi on the other, with the rise
Of SL Raheja hospital in the midst
With three slum-children playing
Happily, more happily than rich kids
This side of the pipe, a crow, two pigeons
And one egret flying the sky between…

What a lovely piece of greenery
Though smelly and dirty
In the centre of our dirty beloved Mumbai city.