Fright Poem by Saroj Padhi

O God! who will save us from the tyranny of this Night
that unleashes blinding waves of terror, torment and fright
turning us into hapless, innocent victims of poor sorts
as we totter at the edge of light and sink at bend of twilight
when dark secrets of humanity snake out of life's sham holes
to shock, sting and benumb us with deadly poison of their truth
and leave us dead at heart and in heads imbecile:

a three-year old rape victim struggles for life
on the corridor of a hospital haunted by stray dogs
as the wind scatters the ash from the pyre of a neighborhood girl
who resisted vulgar comments, to be burnt alive at the stake;
and ghosts of Mao move untrammelled in cut-off regions
filling the air with fear of death in the kangaroo court,
on the eve of vote.

We are a timid generation with little values from our past
and into the shallow frame of thoughtless living we are cast.