Eight farmers have taken their own lives.
The death certificate is crystal clear.
It’s suicide not murder.
The potatoes they have to sell in zero profit
are in shopping trolley
with a tip – top price tag.
The wife of paanwala Ramu stands by roadside every night
She tucks in some ragged clothes inside her bra to makes her breasts
thirty six size.
Ramu stares at the roadside giant mall
Its shadow walks in and gobbles up
his small shop
Iike in an apocalyptic movie.
He watches everyday
his death by drowning inside the mall’s fat belly
His drop out daughter shouting
Bapuji, Bapuji,
he feels strangled.
One day the cops recover his hanging body
from a banyan tree.
The hoarding on the tree announces
one kg sugar free in every purchase
above five hundred rupees.
The mad man who sleeps under the tree
stutters –
Shocking mall, Shocking mall.
People say he was a roadside vendor once.
About the poem: The big companies are devouring the small businessmen. People are being pushed into the darkness of poverty. We have now two India : one is for the rich and one for the poor. This poem is my protest against the monopolization of the Indian economy by a few big corporate giants.
Moumita Alam is a poet from West Bengal. The most important element of her poetry is her voice of dissent. She questions all existential norms of patriarchy and oppression with her words. At the same time a heart full of love resides In her works. Her book “The Musings of the Dark” is now available on Amazon.
