It was a mid night knock. 
A cloud laden sky 
had sent a message. 
The moon was trembling 
like a collateral pain 
in the blue. 
I had not slept the night, 
if I could bleed. 
A toddler had drowned head-on 
in a half-filled bucket 
and some rodents had sheared 
away the toes and ears of a sick child. 
You give me hurts, for glassy eyes. 
The claws on my neck, 
I can hardly breathe. 
The severed paws and intact canines 
of a skull morph into a roaring beast. 
There is no water in my eyes.
Satish Verma