Poetry 2023 Longlist, Divya Chaudhari

The Bully

Even before the rolling stone had stopped moving completely,

it was kicked again by the boy trudging with a school bag on his shoulders.

He entered a park in bloom with flowering plants abound,

his hand moved towards a blooming marigold plant as if to caress.

But a fist returned with clumped flower, leaves and stalk,

leaving a decapitated marigold plant behind.

A mangy dog lying by the roadside attracted his eye.

Next, he kicked it in the ribs, the dog howled in pain and a passerby intervened.

He entered the classroom and the class turned quiet.

By the lunch, he had beaten two boys, snatched the lunches of three and made one cry.

The checklist of punishments and reprimands had already fully been ticked

even before the last bell rang to mark the end of the school day.

His school bag dangled from one of his shoulders and he dragged his feet,

his speed could have made snails shy.

He sat outside the hovel, playing with marbles he extorted from a boy in the school.

Hunger made him dive into his bag and go through the day’s loot,

while eating the bun, he remembered the sniveling victim

and snorted with disregard.

In the evening, a frail-looking woman with drooping shoulders arrived at the hovel,

Unlocked the door and admitted both of them inside.

As the hours passed, the gloominess surpassed the mortuary.

At midnight, a drunken man arrived who quarreled with the woman

and thrashed her.

Painful sobs resonated in the night.



All this time, the boy was huddled under the cot, making himself small.