Muted Witness

Not long ago
we were talking about
who is a better pest - Jay or Jo?!
who is a sweeter idiot - Archu or Hobbes?!

Not long ago
you were yourself
Now-
you are here
yet you are no more
after you returned
with your pink shirt turned black

I wish you had died with the rest.

Tell me, Sri
Tell me when did it snap-
that something in you?
When you heard loud panic?
or when you saw charred faces fall?
or when you felt the resonating wails
ask why some stories end suddenly without an end?

Have not moths burning in candle light
always been a romantic notion in your poetry?
then why?
you said - Crowds are an ugly pain
now you see the flood of empty space
you said - you hate noise & cacophony
now you have silence burning
then -
why?
Tell me, you fool.
move a lip
move a limb

I wish you had died with the rest.

Now I know
the dead are better off
as numbers in the headlines.