Untitled Poem by Hemant Shesh

Now there is no use feeding milk to your own sleeves.
Snakes have appeared just at a hand shaking distance.
I had said to those aged men
Who had strong belief
In herbal toothpaste and country liquor.
But all of them had forgotten their incantations of sorcery and witch hunting,
Were involved in the hunt of sensational yoga-postures
And there were afloat in the air-
The forecasts of their doom:

And just then
I had seen the Lords of the city
All with old honorifics
In the morning attire ruffled
Caught by Encephalitis.
They were donating their wristwatches:
All baffled and hamstrung.

And I knew that they had all won
Prizes for their exceptional health and punctuality the other day.


[Translated by Kalanath Shastry]