The burro at Sultanpur

In the busy main street

Of this Sultanpur city

Smeared with the dust of antiquity

Incessant flow of rickshaws

With non-stop rings of bells

Sounding like death knells

Colourful, clamorous and bright,

Still, beautiful is this ugliness of antiquity

There stands a burro exactly in the middle

Of this road surrounded by all these noises

Silent, sharpening and stretching its long big ears

At this time flows and reaches there

Beautiful music, stereo and non-stereo,

Announcement of lottery tickets,

With handsome promises on future,

Slogans, election manifesto, street politics,

Land boundary disputes, secrets of friends,

Luring laughs of ladies flirting with their lovers

But, the burro stands on the middle of the road

In the same state, unmoved and dispassionate

And, many centuries have passed now.

By Ismail Meladi