Anuradha Bhattacharyya - Captive Without Bars

A piquant whistle
Has shattered the panes.
The window, perpetually open
Confides secrets of the world
Indiscriminately now.
What bricks and stones
Could not, did the whistle.

Poor frames, stultified
Hang motionless.
No more easy rejoicings
Of shut-in content.

A captive without bars, now
Invade hot tongues of secrets,
Hot, over-ripe sauce:
Scarlet, green and yellow;
Poor fellow without panes
Scare-crowed.

Hollering demi-abstracts
Shuffle down the streets.
Logos garb crabbed
Physiognomies.
Clamorous claims of
Badges, stamps, certificates
Of earned achievements
Invade slumbering calm within.

Diminishing returns -
Physical prowess:
Throat, fists, feet,
In respective departments
Signalize settled signifiers.
Dogs begin to howl
The frames hang mute.

A captive without bars;
Choices clamour chaotic
Provisions, pick or refuse -
Peaks or rebukes.

Entered and fumigated
Roaring monsters exhale
Venomous fumes;
Where cats pawed scratchless,
Now chase rats, play
Chain, chain, I spy you games.
Creepers extend
Clutching fingers;
Warbling puddles
Of precipitated
Aphrodisiac steam
Peep and splash in.

Metal rusts, wood rots,
Brick crumbles, glass breaks,
A weak thread knotted
Through and through,
Perplexed, strained,
Quivers and bursts.

Barbed wires answer not
The barrier required.
Nor do netted nylon,
Nor leather curtains.
The rat chase has multiplied
To reptiles and predators.

Swarms of lies, come
Wolfing jaws gaping
At ephemeral joy
Inside, now exposed
By defenseless frames -
Woesome inevitable days.

Anuradha Bhattacharyya

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