Pilferer – Karma At Play [POEM]

He was about ten

In a shabby earthy way cute

Silently opening the rubbish chute

Of a multi-storeyed building.

The woman on the first floor –

The one who often worships

The stray cows

Even at the risk of being hit –

Tried to shoo him.

His pilfering the garbage did irk

Her and me.

Her – maybe out of possessiveness,

Me – sheer outrage.

Ignoring us, on the floor

Coolly he kept his sack of loot,

Full of plastic bits, polythene

Bottles and usual metallic whit,

And patted the water of the open drain

Wiped on his dirty large shirt

– There, his hands were clean.

“These rich people are mean.”

• Also read When Hunger Cries Out [POEM]

On my mental screen

The familiar images flash of kids

Wearing white uniforms

Caps red and green moving in rows

Parents happily bearing the cost

Of unnecessary ties and bows –

The distinguishing paraphernalia –

Of  public schools.

“The Karmas, the Karmas are to be blamed

For being lowly born.”

This explanation their conscience blunts

Saves them from facing the alternative –

Of finding ways to obliterate social inequality

– So this seemingly  innocuous Karma-Kola they sip

And leisurely through life they trip.

– The Pilferer by Kiran Jhamb

Read more from Kiran Jhamb here.

—

Read more poems here.

Poetry lover? Check out Gitanjali: A Collection of Indian Poems by the Nobel Laureate