Her face was sallow, gaunt
Her eyes – pathetic - oozing want,
The shriveled frame slaved in concrete and dust
The unrelenting sun,
Sweat – an odorous miasma
Stickiness and discomfort in its pale
No respite to the brow and the glowing entrails.
Stunted aspirations, frustrated urges,
Tiredness and trepidation
Unsatiated yearning, unslaked thirst,
Of hopes, an obfuscation!
The work is back breaking, gut wrenching, spirit searing
The surrounding are asphyxiating,
tone deafening and soul corroding!
There is so much gaiety across that wall
Happy frolicking children one and all.
Blessings and bounty seem to be their birthright
But just across the wall, remorse, pain, woe betide.
Who has sentenced her to remorseless strife?
Suddenly the heart is moist.
The inner eye wept in shamefaced, inconsolable profusion.
But drudgery, habit, and tedium
Indifference and sloth – his idiom
Features set in inscrutability,
He turned his sight
And marched away with the procession!
