The Cave
Inside the cave,
it was cold.
Outside the cave,
people turned into bits of over burnt coal.
Inside the cave,
the hunters hid.
Outside the cave,
people arched their eyebrows as if drawing out secret daggers.
Inside the cave,
they didn’t know how to use spoons and forks.
Outside the cave,
people drew each others’ eye sockets out with spoons and forks.
Inside the cave,
death met them simply.
Outside the cave,
it came to them in textual disguises.
Inside the cave,
the woman wept for her lover.
Outside the cave,
she sold his old photographs for Rs 1,000 each.
Inside the cave,
people were hungry.
Outside the cave,
they had food but chose not to eat it.
Inside the cave,
they couldn’t read or write.
Outside the cave,
their writings set the mark for human behaviour.
Inside the cave,
they groaned when in pain.
Outside the cave,
you could never make out whether they were in pleasure or pain.
( The poem is a part of my latest poetry collection ‘I’d Like a bit of the Moon’ recently published by Amazon ).
The book is available on Amazon. For those interested, here is the link :
https://www.amazon.com/Like-Bit-Moon-Rati-Agnihotri/dp/8194816483
