The Inside

 

 The Inside

Vidyasagar Mundroy

    

What a lively zoo unlike books with life-less animals!

Can’t touch them; or they bite us unlike those in the books.

Chirpy chattering birds, swinging monkeys, roaring lions

And many more objets d’art creatures for one and all.

 

Visiting the zoo again; now I can see inside.

I see not a zoo but a jail of little souls forlorn.

Suppressed, teased and confined to cells

Forever by their masters through no fault of them.

 

I hear cacophony of birds; not their melodies.

I see listless monkeys; not their swift swings.

I find slumbering lions; not their majestic roars.

Deprived of their rights awaiting freedom; a dream.

 

Suffering in silence for days and nights

For the joy of people who can’t see inside.

Yet, no complaints, no protests and no violence.

Oh God! Have mercy. Break their shackles forever.