We are shutdown.

There will be no prepared

Parvenu face at my door.

So I will wear the beloved

Tattered shirt

I could not wear before.

With no fear of any gentlemanly visit,

I will slouch in any posture,

In any cluttered corner sit.

I will play the music nobody but me

Fancies, and be short, brief, and nasty

To Whatsapp dunces.

I will sing in the bathroom as I did

When I was but an energetic kid.

In the kitchen I will cook outrageous

Dishes, cocking a snook at

Professional dervishes.

When I am tired, I will lie askew

on a rough and tumble floor,

and reject the infected world

with therapeutic snore.

I will thumb through books nobody

May read, unshackled from the

Baggage of an academic creed.

When some rogue guru delivers

Homily at prime hour, I shall press

The mute button and shout

“get thee gone slime, I am wise to Lucifer.”

 

Besides, think how many spoilers in high places

Corona embraces. That thought too

Is grist in quotidian quarantine.

Where other things have failed,–

Nationalism, religions, war–

How a sightless bug unites us all,

Obliterating contentions of yours and mine

From low to high, near to far.

May be bugs are the answer to a world

Gone mad. Bring on the bugs

They spare no cad.


ZNetwork is funded solely through the generosity of its readers.

Donate
Donate

Badri Raina is a well-known commentator on politics, culture and society. His columns on the Znet have a global following. Raina taught English literature at the University of Delhi for over four decades and is the author of the much acclaimed Dickens and the Dialectic of Growth. He has several collections of poems and translations. His writings have appeared in nearly all major English dailies and journals in India.

Leave A Reply

Subscribe

All the latest from Z, directly to your inbox.

Institute for Social and Cultural Communications, Inc. is a 501(c)3 non-profit.

Our EIN# is #22-2959506. Your donation is tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law.

We do not accept funding from advertising or corporate sponsors.  We rely on donors like you to do our work.

ZNetwork: Left News, Analysis, Vision & Strategy

Subscribe

All the latest from Z, directly to your inbox.

No Paywalls. No Billionaires.
Just People Power.

Z Needs Your Help!

ZNetwork reached millions, published 800 originals, and amplified movements worldwide in 2024 – all without ads, paywalls, or corporate funding. Read our annual report here.

Now, we need your support to keep radical, independent media growing in 2025 and beyond. Every donation helps us build vision and strategy for liberation.

Subscribe

Join the Z Community – receive event invites, announcements, a Weekly Digest, and opportunities to engage.

Exit mobile version