The Day of Divisions – When the faces came off

“A Day of Divisions” – A ‘Found Poetry’ on The Dadri Beef Lynching Case

A Day Of Divisions

Another Ordinary day had almost drawn to an end

Dinner was well over

And lights were being switched off

In the village

He was chatting with his family

There was a sense of revelry

Within the walls of the Blacksmith’s home

He had a lot to be thankful about

A little distance away

Two young boys, maybe three

Three young boys, maybe two

Were sitting and chatting too

In the labyrinthine maze of half-fulfilled dreams

Tomorrow held little promise and no relief

No relief and little promise held tomorrow

From the drudgery of everyday existence

When they saw a dog wrestle with a packet of bones

A packet of bones they saw the dog wrestled with

The loudspeaker magnified the message

A cow had been slaughtered

The ‘proof’ was enough for the neighbours

The same neighbours who had embraced him on Eid

Three days back and

Complimented his mother for the tasty mutton

Suddenly turned blood thirsty

Blood thirsty they turned suddenly

Neighbours became killers

Killers became neighbours

on

THE DAY OF DIVISIONS

All faces wore masks

All masks were removed

on

THE DAY OF DIVISIONS

Day Six of Writing 201 : poetry presented the following challenge.

Prompt : Faces           Form: Found Poetry       Device: Chiasmus

For me this was the most difficult challenge till now. I used an article from Hindustan Times October 11, 2015

I went about it in the traditional way. All words (excepts masks)  used in the poem have been cut out from a single newspaper article. I have only taken the liberty to rearrange them.