THE TANGO

Lips tremble 
like sentinels 
when legs burn like candles 
whole night, 

in the pocket a grenade explodes; 
a girl gets raped in broad day light 
to receive a compensation 
under a leaky roof of frozen hunger: 

the emptiness in bed 
stirs a grain, a deemed birth of catastrophe 
one classical tragedy begins 

a lighthouse shuts when the ship sinks, 
let us go on the bank to find the needles – 
to start a dialogue with the moon, 

when the tide comes 
it will throw some heroes 


Satish Verma