The Concrete Cemetery

Baijnath Gupta

I stand on the grey walkway

Watching the vehicles

Whirring on

The concrete road,

Hearing the cries of

The trees crashing down

Buried under it long ago,

And the birds' screech

At the loss of home,

And the sobs of simple folks

Over the clearance of their cottage.

My eyes, fixed on the concrete expanse for so long,

Turn into marbles,

My heart into a

Crowded crossroad,

A cemetery throbbing

With the pain of

The engines, the cries, the screech and the sobs.

Just then the sight

Of a bird

Jargoning in its flight

Winging its way cheerily

Towards a new sapling

Shooting from a tombstone

And a drop of rain

On my raised brow

Revives the eyes

And relieves the pain.

Poet’s Bio: Dr. Baijnath Gupta is Associate Professor and Head, Department of English, DSN Postgraduate College, Unnao (Affiliated to CSJM University, Kanpur). He has edited an Anthology of Poems and has contributed twenty-nine research articles to various National and International journals of repute. He has published several of his poems in different anthologies and journals/magazines. A collection of his poems is under publication.

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Special Edition: The Dying City :: Setu, November 2024