Deafening music
Caparisoned elephants
In all their finery
Behind the scenes
The stupor of the power drunk!

In garbage dumps
Black bodies hunt for food
Underneath heaps of banners and buntings.
On democracy’s dining table
Food and wine overflows
The guardians of people’s wealth
Seal their contracts
In the city’s red lights.

O, homeless people
Your roof is the sky above your heads.
In the name of the destitute
The rulers hold out begging bowls-
Droughts and floods!
Do tighten your belts
And donate generously.

A giggling child shrieks:
`The emperor is naked!’
In a moment
His eyes lie scattered in Yamapuri!*

As the trumpets and drums
Reach the highest pitch
With a shock we sense-
The lurking silence waiting
For its breaking point.
ooo
The Kingdom of Yama, God of death