Thinking it is spring if you stretch your hand for alms
At the doorstep of this county, instead of a fistful of flowers
A tear will be dropped into your bowl.

Our day here is not a mango fruit cut into two and offered on a platter.
People here offer their nick to the descending yoke. Crowds of poets, crowds of saints
Are crushed like insects between political pages, life moves on
As before without a difference.

They worship adulterous gods and crucify virtuous men, divide air into
Countries, water into districts and provinces. While royalties pledge their
Crowns t exist, they measure every yard of land like clothe and enclose it
In iron safes.
The fools don’t know that the last hour has arrived.
They are deaf to the rumblings of the gorilla in the horizons all around.

Friend! Remove those idols carved of stone from your temples and install idols
Carved out of virtue in their place, I give you chance of two springs;
If you have the strength gather your honey, or else time will overtake you brutally.
Look there rises the sun; raise your folded hands in that direction-
- Seshendra Sharma
http://seshendrasharma.weebly.com

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Gorilla/ modern Indian classic by Seshendra Sharma was published in
1976 when India was passing through the cruel times of emergency
Imposed by Indira Gandhi.