POEM: Oh Storm Never Retreat! (To Indira)

Published: November-December, 1969 in LABOUR WORLD under pen name JAYADEVA

Oh breeze become the storm,
the avenging storm.
Beat up the shore
up the serried land
beat up the rocks
up up into heart of the country
Burn blaze raze down
the hamlets without a stitch
Stop not at the city gates
Lurch into the ghettos
Lurch into the mansions
Into the Rose boulevards
where the rich live
with their paunchy wives
decked with gold and diamonds
bought with the blood of starving children
of workers and whores driven
by hunger to sell themselves for a pittance in the dark
Lurch into the culture stampede
into the sumptuous hall
where the PM attends the charity ball
Surge on storm with fury
pull down the five star hotels
Surge into the executive suites
Pull down the stock exchanges
the podiums of the commerce and trade
and the Sanatan Dharma pulpits
from where the octopus arms of authority
crush the poor
Rove on storm, catch the beaurocrat
his Adams apple under his achkhan
Squeeze him till he vomits blood
On, on strip the politician naked
parade him naked with his lecherous skin
parade him with his cratered soul
sold night and day to his monopolist boss
Lash on storm, never retreat
on on with whipped up fury
Till you scrub the country
clean for your journey


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