The hanging bent backbone

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Tired and timid

I look up to the sky

Eyes burn and i am blinded.

The scorching heat hurts my dark skin.

My parched lips and my dry tongue

yearning for a full gulp of water 

to quench my thirst without guilt 

that i have consumed what i don’t deserve 

My hands rough and rugged, rubbing 

my shoulders once so strong 

now hanging loose with the burden 

of my head which once i held high. 

My feet bare and cracked 

has run around to hold things together. 

walked past the great past of prosperity 

now a doomed present, begging for a still existing tomorrow 

The source of my past prosperity 

laying brown and arid. 

A green bed it used to be once 

now a hot bed of pain, hunger and shame. 

I see my wife who was once beautiful 

in her red saree and red bindi. 

Even more beautiful today in her same red saree 

torn in the hardship, her bindi seems bigger than her hollowed cheeks. 

My kids, three reasons for my smile 

for whom i dreamt of a happy tomorrow 

sit and play with a longing look of hunger 

sometimes crying, mostly sleeping tired. 

A deep cry tries to escape my throat. 

I hold it back with a brave face. 

I still long for a better tomorrow 

for i love my wife and kids more than myself. 

They can cheat me with fake promises. 

They can humiliate me with bread crumbs of revival. 

I walk towards the ray of hope for few days of respite to my loved ones. 

I just hope the loop will not give away shattering my last dream.