Gully
a poem, again.
1.
The street, I am talking about, does not show up on Google Maps.
2.
The big highways like big businesses,
Are saved by yearly bailouts,
And greasy wads of bills being slid into pockets.
3.
In contrast, my street is filed in the government records
As “too small to succeed,”
And in a few weeks,
will be cut open
and sold for parts.
4.
It may not have seen gun battles and strafing-runs during the two European wars.
But there are smoking cannons: the Charminar cigarettes
the weeping man chain-lights trying to remember the face of his mother.
5.
The twilight is for the boy and the girl,
Who held hands for the first time
On my gully.
6.
In the 5 AMs, somedays bullhorns blare Tamil songs,
To coax the sun out of sleep,
only the village clown is coaxed,
into the small street,
in the still-dark,
and dances drunk only on Illayaraja.
7.
Evenings belong to a gang of boys,
With a large concrete slab for wickets,
Fighting over the batting order.
8.
The royal motorcades might have all passed over highways,
Flanked on both sides by loyalists waving small flags,
But the gully is the one the king ran into
When fleeing insurrection.
9.
People get speeding tickets along numbered highways,
Driving the pedal of their cars to the floor,
Rushing without a fight towards the wide open mouths of cities,
where they are busy making and handing out trophies.
10.
Only the chosen come to the gully,
and are shown the named road that stretches onto a mud road,
Which then disappears namelessly into real adventure.
Only they hear the haunting silence of the dead ends,
which lulls to sleep whatever is on the other side.
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About the author
Ranju Mamachan got his Masters in Thermal Science from the National Institute of Technology, Calicut, India. He is an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Department of Manipal Institute of Technology. He sometimes resurrects dead writers in his class to the amusement of his students. Previously published in
1. Rigorous mag: https://rigorous-mag.com/v4i4/ranju-mamachan.html
2. Cabinet of Heed: https://cabinetofheed.com/2021/11/07/our-finest-moment-ranju-mamachan/
3. Story titled Killing superman published in Chaicopy: https://issuu.com/chaicopy/docs/ripples
4. Antipodean SF: https://www.antisf.com/the-stories/what-i-have-to-say-about-the-supersize-oceans-of-the-exoplanet-c59034
