Shoddy Bar

They sat facing one another Inside the shoddy bar Swarthy figures Like in American cartoons Their visages waxen Looks distant Cadaverous blank The figures of Jesus On The Cross His pain lighted By a low watt crimson bulb Smiling Lord Ganesh Granting boons With burnt-out incense sticks Before him Presided over the scene Each had a burden Perhaps the dejection Due to cruel rejection Of the past to bury Or a long-lost love A broken wedlock Death of a sweet-heart A broken heart of some sort They sat Puffing at their fags Or beedis Or whatever they had The glow at the tip Of what they smoked Said it all The burn that rued their hearts Aches of the like The winds of the plains Could hardly hope to soothe Angst, the wisdom Of the silent mounts around Could ever undo They sat puffing and drinking In silence at the cacophonous bar Shoddy, dilapidated Infested with flies Flying insects and mice Dreaming they could once again Sit with their kids Under hurricane lamps Late into the night Helping them with their lessons As the clouds rumbled On distant mountain tops As their wives garnished Some favourite dish In smoky kitchens unlit Wiping burning eyes With greying sari tips Later to return To their late night beds To grant midnight warmth Of sweat and love That made the nights More odoriferous Than the incense burnt Before indifferent Gods They longed and longed As every drink sank Into their burning core To return to the shores of love afar As the world outside brimmed Calling them drunkards Refusing to grant There are addictions of sorts Religion, power and fads Women, avarice, greed That ruined humankind More than the drinks The entire humanity drank With their glasses emptied They would now decamp Like moths fleeing a dying lamp Into the night's waiting arms To the big bar under the shimmering stars Where the cups are full again With tears frothing in grief and pain Where they would lie wide awake After a fitful nap past midnight On their unkempt beds like dried-up twigs To roll and roll alone in pain Sob and cry again in vain And sing to far off receding plains Where their solace hidden, remains