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This poem is taken from PN Review 75, Volume 17 Number 1, September - October 1990.

Two Poems Sujata Bhatt

NANABHAI BHATT IN PRISON

At the foot of Takhteshwar hill
there is an L-shaped house
hidden from the road
by five mango trees
planted by Nanabhai Bhatt.

Huge crows swoop over
the L-shaped terrace,
red-beaked green parrots fight over
the mango trees. Some years the monsoons
sweep away too much.
It is 1930, 1936 ...
It is 1942:
Nanabhai sits writing for a moment
while my grandmother
gives orders to everyone.

The next day, he lands in prison again:
thrown in without a trial
...


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