Eyeless near the L.V.Prasad hospital
jagannath rao adukur | 27 June 2004, 11:54pmHere is a poem I wrote a year ago on the poor villagers sleeping on the footpath opposite the L.V.Prasad hospital waiting for the eye surgery :
On the footpath outside the L.V.Prasad
Eye Hospital ,Hyderabad
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They came in hordes from verdant fields
And fresh cowdung-smelling mud-huts
Through miles of mud-tracks lined with ketaki bushes
And long arduous bullock-cart journeys
Their upturned moustaches smelt of fresh buttermilk
The contours of their vacuous eyes had traces of
Viscous rheum and hot salty lugubrious tears .
The big bad city harboured luminous hopes .
The doctor garu's skilled scalpel carved
Strange phosphorescent worlds for the eyeless
Unknown to the opaqueness of their tired old eyes.
These ancient men with weather-worn faces braved
The biting cold of December outside the hospital .
The idlis they served on the footpath
Were soft and belly-friendly
The vendor women served up
Hot steaming puris ,urban puris
Strangely delicious ,topped with
Sticky hot onion-potato curry
Dusky women in cheap pochampalli sarees
Waited impatiently for their men
Surely green eye-patches, when finally removed,
Will open up exciting new worlds.
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Current Mood: Happy
Current Music: classical
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