RATTRAP

Where’s kitchen, and where’s toilet in this shack?

Is there a nook here for god?

Is there a room for her to rap her saree?

Where shall she breastfeed her last one?

Is this called a floor on which she’s sitting now?

Holes, holes, up and down;

Up for rain to shower its curse

And down for bugs and worms to wriggle at night.

But how does a rat covet this floorless shack?

Didn’t they inform it this shack lies below poverty line?

Rat knows how to feed its stomach

What if she hasn’t considered the rat as her family member?

You might also find this rat in a millionaire’s flat tomorrow

But today,

The rat wants, it wants her food

She thinks of a rattrap to woo

And kill the rat, keeping a piece of coconut

As a draw, but what will she do

When her little girl cries of hunger?

She’s trapped now.