Death Rites Poem by Sutapa Chaudhuri

Up close and personal with death
A catalogue of soulless formalities
Business rituals mundane matters
Penny pinching nitty-gritties of life
The humdrum chaos of grief and ceremony
The dear departed turned merely
To a Body, numbered, queued for cremation
Shrouded in white the inert selves moved along
Like baggage lying on cold crowded platforms
The makeshift bamboo stretchers wait patiently
The metallic warmth of the yawning electric furnaces
The blazing fire turning in an instant
The well-beloved into a miniature mound of ashes
The burnt bones smoulder fiery on charred wheel burrows
Waiting to be set free by unaccustomed tender hands
The wizened old river muddy with use
Indifferent to the grieving cinders offer no shelter
Distancing lonely souls from matters of life and death