Father in a Crowd by Shamik Banerjee

Father in a Crowd

The interchange is confounding and loud,
Autorickshaws scuttle the rotary,
Crowd in a father, father in a crowd;

Sun-blinding towers stand pompous and proud,
Paan Shops on footways roar with janglery,
The interchange is confounding and loud;

No pother was under the village cloud,
Or straphangers uncalm and ornery,
Crowd in a father, father in a crowd;

His chest, ribbed and short-winded made him cowed
To find and rest inside an eatery,
The interchange is confounding and loud;

For this frail elder, ease is unallowed,
To his helplessness, youths throw mockery,
Crowd in a father, father in a crowd;

Unminded jaywalkers, no aid endowed,
Snarled are his feet amid this bobbery,
The interchange is confounding and loud,
Crowd in a father, father in a crowd.

by Shamik Banerjee

Instagram: @where_tales_end

Editor’s Note: This villanelle’s repetition is as well-suited to the chaotic mess of a busy intersection as it is to the relationship between father and child.