ANANYA S GUHA - WHEN GANDHI CROSSED DREAMS

​Ananya S Guha lives in Shillong in North East India. He is currently Regional Director at the Indira Gandhi National Open University. He has been writing poetry and publishing his poems for over thirty years.

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​                        When Gandhi Crossed Dreams

When Gandhi crossed dreams
he had just been killed 
worms crept out from the soil.
Blood oozing, holding on to stomach
he said:
This  great country will live for ever 
in hovels, railway tracks and slums 
They are my countrymen 
I will see them through 
their daily bread 
the battling women 
I will rinse of dowry, child marriage
the schools I will shade them with sun
the street children I will bestow smile 
the teachers I will give classrooms 
I will equip the farmer with technology 
I will wreak vengeance on the strong 
who have money power but no will 
I said partition of Bengal would be 
over my dead body
but they have killed me 
not my dreams. Be you Hindu, 
Christian, Buddhist, Sikh or Muslim  
if you keep killing them 
my body, phoenix like will rise in shambles
what will you  say then?
A ghost,an apparition 
in this country of warriors, ghosts and 
the supernatural?

The blood still emanating on to my 
shivering body, I wiped it slowly.
Slept. Started dreaming again 
of Lions and the great Warriors.