The Dance of Rage

No

The earth is not shaking

It is the elephants

They are dancing

They are trumpeting 

Listen, listen, listen

Such a mad, mad tune

This is crazy!

Look, look, look

Our feet are dancing too

Dhoom tikine dhoom

Tikine tikine dhoom

Let us join the dark ones

Their song is wise and true

Their song is right and true

Let our dancing feet

Become a march song

Let our marching feet

Become the great dance

Let us ripple across

Kanyakumari to Kashmir

Let us vibrate from

Gujarat to Arunachal

Let us slap awake sleep

Let us punch sense in stupor

Stupor, the dangerous one

Stupor, the deeply slept

Let us break the front teeth

Two front teeth of stupor

And when stupor finally smiles

The toothless smile

Let us mark its forehead

With the blood from its gums

Let us mark it

With a proud tilak

Let us then finally all

The awake

The revived 

Us all

Sway into Delhi

Our marching, dancing feet

A crescendo

Let us bring the leeches

The bespectacled leeches

Down to free maidan

Then in a single, unified motion

Our legs melded as one

A single leg of a great asur

Let us, let us

Crack their skulls

-

Chandni Girija

April 21, 2021

Day 21 of 30 | 30 Poems in 30 Days | National Poetry Writing Month #napowrimo

Comics: Sanitary Panels

News Clip: Live Mint