Hunger

Hunger is the name
of the pot bellied boy
who rolls down a worn tire
by the stream every morning
clad in tatters
scratching his straw hair
with grimy fingers

Hunger is the name
of the woman who has given birth
to her umpteenth daughter
whose breast milk has long
dried up and where even hope
has shriveled into an ugly
howling fistful of life

Hunger is the name
of the old bunch of bones
who squats, hunched at the
entrance to rail station,
leaning on a lathi
for life-support, as the avalanche
of humans at rush -hour
sways her, to and fro
like a reed in monsoon

Hunger is the name 

of the wrinkled face 

that looks up at the blatantly 

blue sky , bereft of benevolence

parched tongue , beating heart 

in requirement of a respite 

sanguine  agonies of the mind spilling 

out through porous eyes 

Your crop needs moisture 

o farmer , not your saline tears

Hunger is the name 

of the lush verdant crop field 

reduced to a cracked desert 

in two seasons flat

when the rain Gods turned their 

backs on us

Hunger is the name 

of the dwindling last sack 

of rice , kept for "Beej"(seed)

but which was opened in 

one inauspicious moment 

of a wailing infant and 

a chullah gone cold.