Elegy for a Nation

A poem written in the backdrop of the ongoing volatile socio-political scenario in India.

Rakhshanda Jalil

A poem written in the backdrop of the ongoing volatile socio-political scenario in India.

Do you smell that?
That acrid stench of burning dreams
The coppery, sickly sweet smell of blood
The fetid reek of a decaying society.

Do you hear that?
The faint but persistent knell
The rattling sigh of a dying nation
The screams of the future being trampled upon.

Do you feel that?
The cold tendrils of fear
The oppressive heat of hatred
A nation being forged in the anvil of vitriol.

Do you see that?
As it gets painted into a new hue
Gone are the blues, the greens or even the whites of peace
As red seeps into saffron, a macabre rendition of a masterpiece.

Shashank Shekhar is an editorial content writer for a global marketing communication firm.

Featured image credit: Matt Artz/Unsplash

This article went live on January thirty-first, two thousand twenty, at zero minutes past twelve at night.

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