STONED

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