Thursday, December 25, 2014

I want to be read - free

I want to emboss poetry on metro rails
one day 
on the swaying and swishing body of the train
ón the faded skin of DTC buses
on the muscles of corporate architectures
in malls
in parking lots
painting the city with poetry 


Delhi - where i lost myself and found again 


i want to write poetry deeply engraved into its skin 


Breathing the hot and cold of the weather 
surviving the scorching heat of politics 
and the vaporous cold of media
i want it to still survive
after freezing days of unsymapthy
after scalding days of vulgar show off 


I want poetry
to be free from the hassles of bespectacled editors
and branded publishers
and swanky cars driving B&B Sons and other publicity 'givers'


I want to write for myself
and you and us
and anyone that breathes 
and not depend on anyone
to be read to be publicized 


I want to write poetry on the mounds of dirt - everywhere
gushing off stench in Nehru Vihar
used, putrefying sanitary napkins
dogs and urchins debating Darwin
over half eaten pizza 


I want to write poetry on swanky cabinet meetings
'in glassrooms of corporate structures
on half burnt faces 
maimed limbs
mangled bodies
crushed dreams
brutally snatched livelihoods 


I want to write on Wazirabad and Gopalpur
and report how unannounced fire burnt illegal constructions
how carbon monoxide killed daily wagers
while they thought
they slept peacefully
in the winter night  


And be published and displayed at Race Course
the next station Jor bagh
many stations earlier
the Hauz Khas 'Village'


I want to write poetry on actual villages
on happiness there 
Not all vulgar and ugly
but sometimes beautiful when they really are. 


Looking for beauty in the metros
i look for poetry
on the otherwise blank
or badly done advertisements 
of a certain shrieking politician
claiming to clean Delhi

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