Everyone knows only too well
who looms large in friends’ wedding photos
who sobs head bowed at the relative’s pyre
and who incarnates in the neighbouring seat
to annihilate the enemy.

No one doubts as to
who dissolves in the crowd
at the Sarayu21 Complex  during rebate seasons
who is the last vertebra in the famine procession
during lean months
and who on the lift descends from Samatva22 Apartments
to the netherworld of the street.

Everyone makes out the father of the child
who counts the teeth of the concrete lion
in the Gandhi Park
the man of the woman who disappears
through the TV vagina.

the beggar in the train that crosses borders
the loner who follows the path of the cross
the possessor of the corpse
even the sea has forsaken.

In the primal water of boredom and solitude
splitting on as anguish
spreading wide as epidemic
a lump of flesh
recognised by none
seen by none.