Chameleon Lens

It was post noon

in lunch recess

that he came, with chameleon lens.

‘It costs a bit, but sure makes you calm,

n lot wiser,' boasted he .

‘Fills you more than books,

Empties more than prayers,'

said he, but unmoved stood they, and    dull.

' A rugged little thing', said a woman

as he unwrapped, 'shouldnt cost much.'

'Behold it changing colour

with every news, thought 

inserted  right in front,’

explained he.

‘Now you have a Muslim lens, now a Brahmin

Next moment a Dalit, next a Christian,

last of all, a street dweller lens.’

‘What happens of the news

passin' thru all five

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?’

asked an obvious leader.

He speaks for them

from his memory begins

and theirs.

‘Most come out dead, sir, it's good,

they c'd leave  children, even, dead;

rest come throbbing , new life, new music

forever echoing in your blood.'

‘And of the beholder?,’ asked a man

In voice choked n timid.

'Quite he becomes, quiter than  gods,

quiter  than even silence;

or in  rare instances, set out,

to put things straight.'

None was taken, and in the corridor

only whispers remained :

‘What use a man gains all knowledge

But loses  his entertainment!’