the land of no tears

in the cot near the entrance,

kuruvamma haggles with throat cancer,

for a couple of months more..

a sparrow at the mercy of the lashing rains 

she ..

ponnamma rolls her doll eyes

she wants the doctor's nod

for the orange drink,

her long time desire

since her liver broke down

and threw up signals too confusing 

for her vegetable brain..

somewhere in the southern corner,

a bottle of fluids is on the flow..

for the dehydrated ones..

a destitute mother

asks questions

no one wants to listen to..

down the corridor,

there are many more wards like this one..

many more cots,

many more cotless,

many more stories...

the government hospital

waits with its thousand eyes ,

the entries to its mysterious labyrinth 

bright and open..

this night 

people roam its halls 

with blood samples of the kith and kin..

towards laboratories 

clean and alien...

like the linen of the dead and the departed..

the ashoka tree inside the compound 

silently chants to its ancient heart

stories that will soon be forgotten

and hence cease to exist...

as a  rain drop rolls over its diseased bough

a lonely  kingfisher starts off towards 

its eternal search for a  land of no tears...

and in that pretty ordinarymonsoon night,

a rare lightning in the western sky

 reveals 

just for a fleeting instant,

the grey silhouette 

of a sinister madhouse...

Reviews

[.]

. astonishing and remarkable work, dear V. ... poignant beyond measure ... i feel your words ... i felt them as i sat with my mother waiting for her chemotherapy in the cancer ward of AIIMS in new delhi ... not too long ago ... and all i could do was pray ... and pray and pray ... that one day ... the voices of citizens are heard ... and one day ... everything matters ... and nothing is dismissed because on the surface it seems absurd ...

[Fabian G. Franklin]

Wow, what a fabulous piece! I really enjoyed this. I particularly like the stanza:
" the government hospital
waits with its thousand eyes ,
the entries to its mysterious labyrinth
bright and open.."

It sets the scene for all the preceeds or follows...great writing! Oh, you might wish to separate ordinary and monsoon unless that is just the way you meant for it to be. Either way...lovely work.