Once Upon a Time

His body lay on a hard dark jelly
Some flies tried spinning a web of stories on it – unseen
Stories of who he was, and why he lay like that, and how many butterflies he had killed and the colours of his dreams
Dreams that lay pasted onto the dark jelly now
His face was strange, a facial done – mud-blood pack
Applied with passion
Over with its drying-up time
Only that no one was coming to wipe it off.
He lay still. Death cannot be stiller.
His chest broken – within and without. Blood. All in the wrong places…veins and arteries confused

A deep canal made its dark way down from his naval to where his penis had been – once upon a time

Once upon a time there was a penis – gently placed on his scrotum.
It usually lay small and obedient – but for times when he was frightened (and he as frightened very often)
... and when he dreamt of certain women (and he dreamt of certain women often)
... and when he was naked with her, about to enter her (and he entered her a few times)

In the first of the two days, he had been frightened – fright had held his hand, urged him to follow him and had entered his body when he had not been looking;

Like a tapeworm.

And his penis had remained hard – and aloof from his body – enough for them to notice it.

They recognized it at once – they too had them. May be many. More. Stronger.

They liked to play with penises. (They had played with Velutha’s.) They were usually attentive to genitals – both male and female

As long as they came for free.

They liked neither the feminine hole – they filled it up soon
Nor did they like male danglings – they smashed it.

A genitilia-free egalitarian world

He lay with his right arm twisted under his back, his left arm finger-less – three broken off mutely, two chopped with a blade

Gilette

An eye – he had no more – staring back at the living, at those with developing dreams in their own…a mesmerizing hue between red, black, orange and white
One of them had held a cigarette lighter to it
Hey, do eyeballs burn in the same way as skin?
Kya pata, dekhlo
Dekh liya.

The drain would soon be covered in water – the sky would break soon – like the pregnancy sack – and he would drown.

Alas?
At last!

The flies finished weaving their story – it said:

Once upon a time
he had refused to part with his plot of rice-growing land
thus the police had taken him. For interrogation.

Interrogate
Ask
Question
Urge
Coax
Convince
Request
Plead
Touch
.......................... deeper

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Once upon a time there lived a small Indian farmer…