Five Deaths

The doctor offered my father a choice.
The newborn or the lovely wife?
My father broke and couldn't choose.
Doctor took a risky undertaking
Cutting out the belly with surgical precision
Saving me and my mother.
I was born from a lifelong scar
And I taught myself to love
All the scars.

I got small pox when I was a young kid.
Same disease which wrecked havoc
In Native America some hundreds
Of years ago.
It decimated and wiped off
Entire communities.
Tell me again how science
Doesn't improve our lives?

I grew up and got Typhoid
Admitted to a hospital for a week
I learnt how most nurses
Hail from Kerala.
Also, I kept this as a reminder
That our rivers are polluted,
Our groundwater is polluted,
And our ponds are gone.

Intoxicated with smoke and leaves
Driving a bike and met an accident
Just before reaching National Highway.
Escaped death from my high-way
And learnt that carelessness is not fun
Nor is thoughtlessness.
(Never (drink/smoke) and drive.)

Sitting in backseat of a big car
Leaving for an exciting trip
Witnessed a road accident
And the driver raced the car
In fear and trepidation
Coming face to face with
A speeding truck
Coming in wrong direction.

Dragon

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