Nissim Ezekiel And The Scorpion, I Wonder That A Scorpion Made Him So Famous Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

Nissim just by taking the scorpion-bite
Of his mother
Turned famous,
Into a global writer
Of fame
As for the bite
Of a scorpion.

The scorpion bit the toe of his mother
One rainy night
Of incessant rain
And thereafter the villagers started
Coming and going
Casting shadows before
On the mud walls
With lanterns and oil-lamps.

The exorcist, the priest and the quack
All indulged in
One by one, turn by turn
Trying to tame the poison
With the mantric effect,
The herbalist with the herbal
To cool it down,
The rationalist father trying to apply
The paraffin oil
And the flames feeding upon.

People discussing papa and punya, karma and dharma,
The sins of previous birth
And the lessening of it,
Purging through
And so many things,
A mass of poor and poverty-stricken fellows,
But the mother at the centre of all,
Writhing in pain
And relieved finally from pain,
Thanking God
And sparing her children.