The Mackerel and the Sea Birds

Tuned with the soft breeze
Floats on its surface
The waves of the river Mandovi

In its blue water
Sparkles the sunlit
Swarms of mackerel
Drifting dead and dormant

The crows peck at the putrid fish
On the river banks
Where the Blue Bottle flies grow
Fat and flatulent
Feeding on the food stuff
Spread around
Disease and distress
Like the owners of the trawlers
Crewing money and ministers

Time may come
People will relate the memory of the fish
In toilet soaps
Like the visits of the Beetles
The Swiss Commemorate
Once in a year
On sweet chocolates

The sea birds came and went away
Singing all the way
Flapping thier feathers
They carried angst and fear
Stitched in their wings

They sang about the dead fish
And the dying fishermen
Who sing no more
And their half-clad children
Mute and dumb
Stood beside the lifeless wooden boats
Gazing at the departing birds
Who cried and sang
And flew far far away
Towards some unknown land
Never to return again.

Bikram Das Gupta
03-11-1990
Panjim-Goa