The bearded man
searching dreams
on the street full of offices/banks
before him, while the city rushes by
or pauses sometime in the glittering night
the man, in the middle of the bustle,
looks like a chair abandoned
in a coffee cup held in a shaky hand
blank eyes fixed on the detritus
of an existence gone waste
living on a Paris street
near the Bastille---
with few belongings stuffed in three bags
bitter, lonely, grim
the bent human and his dog
on that little patch, open air
the two creatures
watched by the ghost of Baudelaire
hovering nearby.
Another hobo
bearded and thin
rummages through the dust-bin
for the residues of the overnight orgies
of the folks in the high-rises
crumbs for strays and him
the man with a blank stare
colonizing a broken street
in the posh New Delhi.
both identical scripts
human narratives
forgotten by a marching history
towards progress and development.
Sunil Sharma: Mumbai-based, Sunil Sharma is a widely- published writer. He has published three collections of poetry, one collection of short fiction, one novel and co- edited five books so far. He is a recipient of the UK-based Destiny Poets’ inaugural Poet of the Year award---2012.
Recently his poems were published in the UN project: Happiness: The Delight-Tree-2015.