Exodus to Nowheresville
Masses moving – another exodus
Beating sun and cloud of dust
Piling hunger and killing thirst
Pillars conglomerate my comrades.
Carrying ache of restrictive covenants
On heavy hearts and heaving hips
The impressive prisoner’s parade
The great expanse towards the gloom of Nowheresville!
Had there been a Red Sea
Would have receded in tears
Had there been a Jericho
Would have tumbled in shame
Our Moseses … oh don’t blame
Are making the right use of rods
No paucity of spontaneous words
And the mass move on to the drudgery of Nowheresville.
What about the divine manna?
Don’t you know, dainty Hannah
What does the infallible scripture say?
No work, no food!
Where then are the plunder
The silver and the gold?
Oh dear, are you an alien, inept
To deem their doom in the land of Nowheresville?
Oh they set their minds on high
To brave the brutal march
To bond with their beloveds
Beyond the blurring borders.
Onward on the onerous march
The rough and rugged route
These hapless beings saunter
And strive to join kith and kin in domains of Nowheresville!
In the grip of misery, they ramble
Through grim and grievous track
Albeit tough and trying
Relentless they plod and slog
The stiff and searing steps
At all cost all castes for once
Clustered in the clamor…
While grateful Kingpins watch them fade into Nowheresville!
Oh Corona! what you caused is
Not a havoc nor a hell but
Gandhi’s dream taking shape
In the high and the low bonding well!
You fattened political purses
And flattened infinite houses
Prophesies of ‘peace’ fulfilled
As masses are stilled on the killer track of Nowheresville!
The rough ground leveled by
A million legs plodding the path
Rugged terrain turned plain
By the pain and the slain
Justice has gone down the drain
To show mercy is the biggest strain
Our bovine and canine get the greatest gain
When the poor tussle for a grain in the reign of Nowheresville.
We truly are the righteous lot
Who give humane care for a perilous pet
And say “poor thing” when people rot
A wound in a leopard makes us fret
A wounded human is seen as a threat
O Lord, our apathy we regret
With rue and remorse beset
We pray, let the realm of Nowheresville justice beget!
Dr. Suka Joshua
Lady Doak College, Madurai, India