Stampede City

Twice did I go there
Riding on a bus
Alighting each time near a temple, crowded
Inside the temple, a big courtyard
With muck everywhere that
Some women were trying to clean
It only moved from here to there
Not getting cleared

Outside a narrow lane
Always covered with a stampede

First it was the pigs
Then came the dogs
Then cows and
Buffaloes followed
And then finally came school children
In blue and white uniforms
They did not pass the temple by
Entered into the Clean Courtyard

Something without stirred
And woke me up

The stampede city
Was my mind
In dream state.

© 2002 Namita Waikar

This poem was first published in Mocha Memoirs, an online literary magazine that is no longer published.