MANUS Book Video of the Pages
MANUS AN ENCOUNTER a Short Film
Friday, 17 May 2019
The moral hazard of sainthood
An art and poetry collective
Election Series
Original artwork by Soumen Bhowmick
The Moral Hazard of Sainthood
by Shujaat Mirza
Now that we have
Home-grown xenophobes
Demagogues as born-again democrats,
What stands between the polls and
The pitch
But a lethal mix of hate-speech,
Hopelessly tied in knots of brazen
Brinkmanship.
And as the desperation arises
Uncannily the bigot rises,
Rushing headlong into the game
Consigning civilities to the flames.
Yes we already know,
They are upto the same old tricks
But we won't let this muck stick!
This forced intercession will be
Contained
The nation has always stood
And will stand
Unified once again.
When the nation is imperiled
An art and poetry collective
Election Series
Original artwork by Soumen Bhowmick
When the Nation is Imperiled
by Shujaat Mirza
When the Nation is imperiled
Poetry becomes Dissent
When the discourse is xenophobic
We need not wait
For a letter of consent
To get things straight
We need to plug the mains
to the circuits
And restore all the grids.
Reckoning it might make each of us Count
And Inveigle our fence-sitting souls
To surmount
Our divisive electric fences.
Inner bigot
Tracts for the Times
A art and poetry collective
Election series
Original artwork by Soumen Bhowmick
Inner Bigot
by Shujaat Mirza
To awaken the inner bigot
You don't need it all stencilled
As a permanently marked skill.
You just need some rusted hate
Inside your head
That scrambles up your
Inner state.
And then you are on the
go
To match a prey to a kill.
Trash the hate vibes
Tracts for the Times
An art and poetry collective
Election series
Original artwork by Soumen Bhowmick
Trash the hate vibes
by Shujaat Mirza
As hate begets hate
And starts to circulate
We are walking dead
If we do not emasculate
The clumsy but efficient
Ghost-armies of the potentate.
That devour and feast upon
Each accusation and insinuation
That points you out as anti-national.
This voice that we still have left
Is what they wish to obfuscate.
You can choose to fling your hesitations
Or stay stowed in venal habitations.