Morcha

[114 Gowari tribals, mostly women and children, were killed and more than 500 injured, on November 23, 1994 in Nagpur, when police attacked their morcha. The enquiry commission declared that nobody was responsible for this carnage.]

A serpentine procession

Weaves through

Chaotic traffic

In unbearable heat

Their dusty flags

Flutter unnoticed

Their truth

Splashed on cloth banners

Moves unheeded

The noise

Drowns the slogans

From their dry throats

The haggard mass

Of starved men

Thin women

Bony children

In rags

Walks barefoot

Towards barbed wires

Around grand palaces

Of their elected servants

Towards loaded guns

Of faceless controllers

Where their fury

Will collide

With the coldness of the mighty

Their desperation

Will crash into

The apathy of the majority

And burst into

A thousand bloody flames

Igniting the eternal darkness

For one corporeal moment.