MUMBAI MASSACRE - A HOMAGE

Clocks chimed once, loud and clear, indeed at half past nine,

Fragiles and frazzled seeking and sinking in early slumber,

Bustling like a bee, Mumbai night refreshing in wine and dine,

Succumbing to the chilling spells of a late November.

Guns set ablaze all around, a shooting reign and a rain of carnage,

A flash of thunder growing louder rocking its might and night,

Array of militants in veiled shooting, revealing rancour and rage,

Men and women felled in heap, many maimed without a fight.

Under fire and siege were motels, in stake were nation’s prestige,

Their attacks clandestine, surely,barbaric outlandish and freak.

Swathed in sooty flames, the shooting melee in onward surge,

Many a human life mangled, muffled and benumbed in wreck.

Nation, fettered and trembled awhile, swung into speedy action,

Army moved in a trice, trapping the devil’s demonic tread,

Firing spree in retaliation, saving innocents of the nation,

Militants in hasty retreat all but one of the ten falling dead.

Mayhem was far from over, memories do taunt and live longer,

Tremors of trauma, beyond words of solace or swords in valour,

Upsurge of civics imminent , rampant, clad in anguish and anger,

Spotting the venomous and tricky, the hands of a faulty neighbour.

Callous threats, heinous deeds, we pray, should cease for ever,

World needs peace, we, selfless citizens should oft remember,

Salute all martyrs, by their sweat and sacrifice, we do swear,

Anywhere, anytime on earth, no more September or November.