Touch of Fog
The early-morning
Suburban fog,
Coarse- white
Travelling sheet/s,
Covered the dingy
Surroundings of an
Indian suburb,
Converting it
Into grey-white
Mass,
And also—
Surprised him,
By its swiftness
Of stealthy action
By entering his
Suffocating
Small room,
Via half-open windows,
And kissing
His
Gaunt
Veined
Face,
In its cupped hands,
Very tenderly,
Slowly,
The way
His only
Grand-daughter
Would
Often do—
When she was
Little and cared;
Or,
In a different
Time and era,
Occasionally,
The tears
Got kissed,
By
An overworked
Mother.
” Touch of Fog ” ,renews and re-works the tropes of alienation and social marginalisation that form the pitiless heart of urbanisation and the false promises of modernity that it brings in its baleful wake.