Gopal Lahiri writes

Step by step

Let’s leave the morning sun and move forward

what nature can show us as if more vibrant,

Some barren, some green patches, some rat holes

to take it into our soul, think if you will,

not to wait for the saddest dreams,

Then and there, the tiniest sounds, the stench

Water dripping down the drain pipes,

Canal water bubbling up through the gutters,

Sweep them all away, shadows are thickest,

Nothing to do with the warehouses and factories.

Searching way across, evening has taken root,

This again? Yes or no, a narrow windowsill,

Step by step, one by one, in a twisted heap

Cooing birds, scurrying cats with their blue eyes,

should we equate odium and love?

To fear nothing, how strange it will be?

Night has fallen, the tree grows taller

A coated moon, a single leaf, a sheath,

This pathway, this barricade as black as ink,

Allow to go by, to pass safety at the end.

  

Slum -- Zong Ning