Loneliness

Loneliness lingered on the empty fields
I saw it Sitting by the train window,
Bearing the blistering heat
Of a sleepy ,dusty May afternoon

It loomed large on the dry and barren lands, stretching out
With little brown huts here and there.
Naked little children playing around the dilapidated handpump,
Their mothers sitting around huddled in groups,
Some gossiping, some bickering

It hovered around Puddles of water collected along some thorny trees
Where Stray dogs rolled themselves in it and curled nearby,
For wiling away the afternoon, sleeping.
Some miles away it followed a bullock cart ,which dragged itself farther
Towards the town, on the other side of the parched river.

As night descended and hot winds blew again
Loneliness sat, wearily, on a wooden bench,
under a cracked, dim tubelight
In a dark and lonely railway station.


Right from my heart