Dion D'Souza \ Monsoon 2015

*

The Nightmare of the Mosquito

As the man advanced slowly,
moving as if through a monotonous dream,
fumigating equipment in hand, the smoke
rising heavenward behind him,
pungently engulfing the low walls,
the people, their small homes
and lives
cluttering the narrow lane,
a boy in a red vest, 
                                     breathless,
came bounding onto the road.


*

Black Kitten
for Sania D’Silva

Walking into the street
the heat hits as only heat can
(or a mother’s words maybe
and sometimes a perfect stranger’s).
We are surprised at the sight
of this black kitten in our path.
(Thankfully not crossing it!
And yet, what harm,
what ill luck
could this scrawny creature inflict?
Stumbling on thin legs
from under a wire fence, and
almost onto Death’s – familiar? –
doorstep.)

Once you wanted to set fire to everything,
to make the world burn.

Today
you bend before the kitten,
stroking its famished body,
its black stub of a chin.


*

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Dion D'Souza works as an editor; simultaneously, he attempts to craft interesting verse and short fiction. His work has appeared in Kavya Bharati, Nether, One Forty Fiction, Helter Skelter, The Bombay Literary Magazine, Muse India, The Bangalore Review and the Big Bridge Anthology of Contemporary Indian Poetry. He was shortlisted for the Toto Funds the Arts Creative Writing Prize in 2013 and the Raedleaf India Poetry Award in 2014.