A reporter`s sorrow


The one fasting unto death has already broken his fast

By drinking Mausami squash.


Today

no news of heart stroke of any Prime Minister, Minister 

or Ward Commissioner.


No Scam.

No Rape.

The sun dozed dispersing cold rays.


Today

my camera slept starved.

Nothing fruited on the tree of news.


The official smile of the Chief Minister

and 

the advertisement of life-saving Insurance company is

as it is on the public toilet-wall.


Today,slower is the blood circulation.

Nobody kidnapped anyone asking for ransom.


Communal riot,

molestation of house-maid,

bank robbery, 

nothing happened today.


A silly day 

passed through me today smiling wryly.

_________________________________________________________________________

Rajendra Bhandari (born 1956) is a Nepali poet of repute. A Reader in Nepali at the Sikkim Government College, Gangtok, he holds a doctorate in Nepali literature from the University of North Bengal. He has published five collections of poetry and has won various awards over the years, including the Diyalo Purashkar in Poetry from the Nepali Sahitya Sammelan, Darjeeling (1981), the Shiva Kumar Rai Memorial Award for poetry from the South Sikkim Sahitya Sammelan (1998) and the Dr. Shova Kanti Thegim Memorial Award for poetry from the Shovakanti Memorial Trust, Gangtok (1999).