Root Poem by Anil Kumar Panda

Walking down the smooth lane
Of big cities I still feel the country air
That I have left a decade ago in my face;
The dead dog by the road side
Reminds me of the lizard we used to
Throw stones at and kill under the trees;
I could smell the cowdung in the exhaust
Fumes of vehicles running past me;
I have brought with me all those smells
And fragrances the dead lotus and morning
Flowers give to stay alive in this pell-mell
Of hate, robbery, hunger and ugliness;
I have in me the scent of my mother’s womb too
To beat the stench coming out the rotten
Blood of the beggar woman ran over by a bus;
I have to live to keep alive to feel the soil
When I pace the marble floor of the flat
And wish I should not have been born there
To stay alone and get humiliated here.