"CRUSHED TO DEATH IN THE BENGAL WOODLANDS"

caught, subdued and compressed
i become
trapped within the coils of the legless Naja
hauled in
like a fish on a line
helpless
subject
to a primal reality
the intrinsic violence of the natural order
ambushed, seized, clutched and snatched
and made to break slowly :
here is no rush
here is no hurry
here is only hopeless death for the weak

the haemorrhage commences :
a destruction of the neural process
a disruption of sanguinary function

i try to scream but my lungs are burning
i try to struggle but my body is rendered pathetic
i try to wiggle but i am shut as a brick in a tower
i try to kill but i am the one dying

my circulation arrests
my cardiac activity impedes
my blood vessels close
a fatal loss of oxygen and glucose

general ischemia arrests my mortal being
as the bones break into a sinister rhythmic clanking
of peak human agony

          * * *

Nagaraja of the dense tropical bush :
mother of all serpents
in this natural slurry,
haunter of the littoral zone, appear !
lurker of the obscure waters
and abandoned paddy fields
watching from the surface,
ophic eyes emerge
in the midst of the sprawling Nymphaea

tonic scents of aquatic plants
hides the beast beneath, the
slitherer of the mangrove grounds

Bengali monster of the bog
slinking amongst the rhizomes
coiling upon the nodes
sunbathing on the mudflats of Baleswar

crushed as if the chital i am

no respect is given
in the heart of the primeval rainforest :
all respect is earned and feared
nothing is given away, nothing is wasted
everything is taken, everything recycled
everything devoured and digested by something
in this tropical monsoon inferno

human friability manifests
once again
in the thickest recesses
of the Sundarbans inferno

as swift and full of grace
as the retractility
of the sharp claw of the raptor
my death is
in this solitary Bengal woodland

i was crushed to death
by a massive snake :
a complete and terrifying honour

i lived and i died
a servant
in nature's church

"TRAPPED IN BRUEGHELLIAN HELL"

the naked woman peeps through the hollowed trunk
gorging on the ear of Malchus
as Judas escapes with his kiss
like the disgraced king at midnight
awaiting the morn of usurpation

those cold of heart are burned in an ever-lasting flame !
those fit of body are nailed to a post
as to never run or climb or swim again !
 
those wanton of lust are impaled through their ass  
as to never crave penetration again !

and those stout and thick of build
are hung from the hooks of butchers
and are forced then to ingest
the most impure and pungent of foods :
how can you even masticate the contents of your foul mouth
with all these frogs leaping in constant out of there ?

the punished in hell are but cogs
amalgamated into the bizarre machinery
with whose twisting and turning
grinds humanity to the finest flour

the drunkard drowns in his own flask of spirits
trying to find a ship

receive the tonsure
swallow the blood
munch the flesh of Christ
take your beating without impunity
accept the corporeal punishment
and pray for spiritual discipline

   a precarious dancing in proximity
   to the steep slopes of the precipice,
   abyss of privation and addiction !
 
           trapped in Brueghelian hell !

           where life perishes wretchedly  

  submerged into hellmouths,
  left to drown theredown !

      infernal, restless realms...

"THE COCKROACH"

 i am ecdysis !
 and i shed the pelage of my flesh

my weak frame dissolves
as if the moulting of some vile insect

the clods of the earth stick together
beneath my insectile tarsi

my world becomes a swidden
and i grow a few more legs
to adapt

the human heart overflows with its own rancid discharge
and i feast upon that foulness

my appendages i now wield
as if the crook of an old wizard
but my breath is soot and my magic is garbage
and i toss like flotsam on the waves
without control

the world is one great wealth of admirable colours
but i see only grey

my feet are wet from the tears of a raped sibyl
but i do not care

leave me alone and let me hide in this stink

on and on and on i walk
in the refuse

the heavenward inclinations
of my spiritual faculty
is squashed again and again
by the sheer reality of my natural condition :
Heaven is a bug-free place i must assume...

the harlots bargain for dignity and redemption
and the children are typhoid again :
i do not have such problems, for dignity and disease
exists not in the world of creeps :

we are the disease

we never knew the dignity