Dam
after they built the hugest dam
they've given us Korean TV sets
in lieu of disconsolate unlivable homes
and decimated steep goat track
for acceptable protected gradients
of organized plastic-meshed marigold
now many wild fish dutifully worship
at drowned temples that inconsolably weep
even while young empowered waters roar
and we make modern desperate love
in the sanctioned pitiable aftermath
of a popular elongated family serial
on fair and lovely cable TV
Ashok Niyogi, at 52, has been retired for some years and has been cashew farming, writing, and traveling. He divides time between California, where his daughters live, Delhi and the Indian Himalayas. He made a career as an International Trader and has lived and worked in the Soviet Union, Europe and South East Asia in the '80s and '90s.