Song of unemployment

Give me bread
Honest bread
With little something
For me and my family
I promise I won’t steal.

Give me my dues
Let my sweat, brain speak
No other language
I should need to use
I won’t go astray.

When I starve
With my family
When my toil is stolen
Just because you sleep
Instead of guarding us.

That’s when I go blind
Do things I should nor
To stop me
Wake up
Do your duties.

Sharmishtha basu
1.08.10

Bhopal Gas Tragedy

Twenty five thousand lives
Perished without a trace
Left behind a procession
Of twisted bodies and limbs.

People in power
Busy playing blame game
Busy saving their skin
Everywhere is silence of death.

People with dead soul
People with dead conscience
Just watch the scene
Don’t utter a word.

When a mother cradles her baby
Deformed and twisted
Who does she curse?
God or human greed?

This is just a message
From one common woman
To the common people who suffered
We mourn with you.

Those who caused this
Those who helped them hide their sin
Both sleep in peace and bliss
But our hearts burn with you.

Any one who wants to know about it can check in Google or Wikipedia.

Its really shameful that almost nothing has been done for these people after absolutely destroying their lives, and the lives of their coming generations.

Ten years

So you want
Bygones to be bygone
After ten long years
After ruining all his hopes.

You loved his brother
You two soared seven skies
In each others consenting arms
Then he dropped you in mud.

You settled his score
On his innocent brother
Trapped him and played with him
For full ten years- mercilessly.

Now ten years later he stands
Prematurely greyed and shattered
You seek his forgiveness not love
Because your lover has caught you.

Mother’s touch

How can she know?
What’s mother’s love?
She never tasted any
Through out her life.

She read about it
So many times
In so many places
But never felt it.

Her mom was there
When she grew up
Distant and cold
Only dutiful not loving.

Never did she sat
Holding her hands
Or caressing her brow
When she was in sickbed.

Never did she allowed
To be touched or hugged
Touching her meant
The hand to be pushed away.

So she grew up reading
All the sweet stories
How mothers rock their babies
And how they hug and kiss.

Flower in rags

Sitting on the park bench
Watching kids play
Dressed up like angels
Running, laughing all the way.

A rude refusal rang out
A sharp, cruel tone
Shattering the blissful
Lovely serenade.

I turned my face
Saw a sad scene.
A flower being ripped
By a bitter thorn.

A beautiful flower
Dressed in rags
Was trying to sell
A bunch of roses.

Some well-dressed mama
Thought she was too dirty
To come near her
Or her precious ones.

So she was applying her right
To make her understand
How unworthy she is
Of venturing so near her.

She turned to walk away
Scared and pale
Learning a lesson bitter
Too early in life.

snow white

Snow white was a little princess
Who lost her mother as a baby
His father married another woman
Thinking she would mother his baby.

She turned out to be a witch
Who was obsessed with her own self
When she saw that her step daughter
Was pure and beautiful like an angel
She became blind with envy and rage.

She called her accomplice and ordered
The little princess had to be killed
The accomplice took her to the forest
Had pity on her, spared her,
In place of her a rabbit was killed.

The queen was not very sure about him
So she sent her seven ghouls
To see what he does with the princess
When they saw that the princess was unharmed
They faked as her friends and took her in.

They kept her there instead of telling the king
The queen came there in disguise
Fed her a poisonous apple, the poor child died
The evil woman returned to her palace
Gloating with happiness and pride.

Fate had some other plans
It made a prince pass by the hut
He saved the princess, married her
Together they came to meet the queen
You should have seen the look on her face.

Cinderella

Sweet Cinderella, pretty girl
never saw her mother at all
her father too passed away
when she was just a tiny girl.

Being brought up by step mom
Whom she thought her real mom
Surviving on her leftovers
Thrown at her by three of them.

After toiling for all day
She was made to sleep in stable
While her step mother and sisters
Slumbered in plush, soft beds.

One night a traveler knocked their door
Seeing his torn and tattered dress
He was at first shown the door
Then when he begged, offered money.

He was allowed to sleep in barn
He saw Cinderella working in the yard
And came silently to her
Asked her for something to eat.

She shared her dinner with him
Hearing her kind words, seeing her beauty
He asked her if she will marry him
She asked to take the permission of her mom.

When he asked her for Cinderella’s hand
He heard the most horrible stories about her
Her mother and sisters vowed again and again
She was the vilest, meanest creature.

The traveler went away, left behind Cinderella
Sad, miserable, broken hearted
For she has lost her heart to him
The only person who has been kind to her.

Next morning a golden chariot stopped at gate
A well dressed prince came down from that
The trio ran for him to greet him
But he brushed them away and asked for Cinderella.

The well

Silver moon shining above
A soft, white mist rising
From the earth toward sky
A lonely rider galloping.

He has to reach the next town
Before tomorrow dawn
So he gallops away
While the whole world sleeps.

His throat is perched
His horse too seems drained
Suddenly he saw in distance
A well, a dream come true.

He galloped his horse toward it
Reached it and climbed down
He looked around for a bucket
But there were none.

Despaired he was about to climb back
When he heard a haunting song
Ringing in a voice oh so sweet
He searched and found a hut.

He reached the door and knocked
A beautiful woman opened the door
“Is it you my love? Are you back?”
He saw that she had not sight.

Beast within him woke up
He saw left and right
Seeing no one around
He entered the hut.

Next morning the villagers came
To get water from the well.
They saw a horse tied to the well,
Its rider lying dead a mile away.

They shook their head and sighed.
A blind girl lived there
With her loving husband
One night someone took advantage.

Of the hapless girl’s lost sight
And her husband’s absence.
They both were found in the well
By the villagers next day.

Every thirsty traveler
Is lured to that hut
Those who ask for bucket
Get one and travel away.

Those who forget humanity
Are found here lying
With body as cold as ice.
Without their soul within.