Chittaranjan Dash, Delhi, 31 December 2023
Midnight hour
In a street all vehicles arranged
tacitly to line up in a neat single file
at traffic light
Like limbs of school children
Weary from slumber hurrying to
form a spotless queue at command
of a teacher
Then we lock our eyes
with a shepherd star guarding o’er us
all our souls tidying themselves
like shaking of a dog’s body
Confessions
tumble out like dried flowers of sin
and gather around eyes of
a street urchin
Eyes as vacuous as its belly,
the urchin absorbs all our sins
like guardian angel of the city
Far from shepherd star
We turn anonymous
and blind ourselves to the light
around us as we hurry to bury us
in dark of slumber.
