TRAVELERS IN DESERT

A hot shining sun overhead

Its heat was at its peak

Lifted my head to catch a glimpse of it

And then there were contracted pupil

As if even they were afraid from its

 high intensity and ultraviolet

my head down not to prevent the light

but in awe, stress and disgrace

the travelers took their shirts off

most of those were in light or white

dipped them in water meagre  or none

and tied them on head  round  and tight

most of them now ressembled to those dacoits or terrorists

watched in movies or read in newspapers

over and over but never witnessed

no..I don’t say I am a fashion vista

Or a tourist eager to get clicked

But looking like a ran out from some group of mafia

Was completely out of a few girlish things I did

Unwrapped the stole round my neck

And wrapped over head and face

To the maximum I can

I saw a man taking out his clothes off

And then only a red colored boxers on and all

He tored it into pieces which were then folded

To air himself in motion ought to be repeated

My eyes fell as I had the notion

Had I been the eve before eating the apple

I checked my sling bag

For a bottle of water

It had an amount far less than for a toddler

My eyes twinkled and tongue twirled

As it was a gift in a hot and dry desert

And then A gulp of water

Through my throat

Brought  a  gaze of  eyes dark and deep

 With accompalice of a silent plea

“pretty girl! My baby is hungry

a drop of water is no less than an urgency.”

The sound was soft, slow and lovely

When interrupted words from a man dark and eyes bulging

“you are young ,growing and gay

  can sustain without water days and days

  I am  a weak and old man

 who  feels his life coming to an end”

I smacked my lips

With my tongue out

trying to lick

Even a few drops around

My mouth dint utter any words

Nor did the head lifted up

Before  the eyes had grown to refuse them

An empty water bottle is all I showed them

I was seated on a camels back

When I admired a big hump he had

I wished if I too had had

Must have stored water for months long back

I moved my head round and round

To see if any plants on soil I did found

But all I saw was sand and sand

With tiny grains blue, brown and black

Those grains shifted from here to there

 As if they  too were searching for a chill nowhere

But I wont lie if I say

That a line of dots I saw again and again

A fine level of sand all across

I Kept my eye glued over all

Only to find a scorpion underneath it

It moved on that sand

With an ease

As if a show stopper on a ramp in heels

In the task of creeping

That creature left its footprints

All alone and mind not working

Silly! You are noticing so petty things

 And then a lady touched a plant of cactus

(Huh! How offensive appears to call cactus a plant I think

For it neither gives shade nor juicy fruits to eat)

When a flow of blood started rushing out through her finger

And his husband took her finger in his mouth

Unable to guess if to calm her

Or to suck that fluid on a hot and dry desert around

The journey is hard, dry and sunny

All peace and calm

But still commotion within

Time is slipping and so are resources

All mirage and nothing could be trusted

That dark man said it all right

His life was nearing an end hot and dry