Rajasthan!
All the birds of the desert
and the birds of the plain
and water
scavenge and avenge.
Cleanse.
Black Kite!
Vultures of corruption
that are Indian, Egyptian,
Buzzards or the Southern Grey Shrike
wheel overhead,
feeding off the carcasses
flung on the middens
in the scrub
at the edge of the towns
Round villages of mud
flutter Stock and Laughing Dove.
While Grey Francolins discreetly feed,
flash Green Parakeets chase and screech,
White-Eared Bulbuls skulk in the trees and
House Crows stare
at the rubbish humans spare
from their colourfully clothed existence.
Dabbling, paddling,
scouring dirty waterholes
fouled by sewage and human abuse,
Black Winged Stilts and
Red Wattled Lapwings
probe for food amid the filth as
Red-Headed Ibis and common Moorhen
Delicately tiptoe on the rank refuse.
Black Kite!
Vultures of corruption
that are avian or human
hang as a pall over people’s wretchedness.
Sparrows twitter merrily,
Mynahs laugh nervily,
Peacocks vainly fan their tails
looking for a wife.
Propagating life.
We all share this vice.
Oct 2007
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