Bhopal - 27

The planet beneath us
has marched on
drowning covertly
27 years in its
collective consciousness,
but for Bhopal that night
never ended.

the lethal veil of smoke
blinded reason and feeling,,,
the foul smell of
impending death
dancing naked
in every corner
still fills the
distorted nostrils

the muffled cries of
the unborn,almost humans
unheard,unacknowledged
the dead only numbers
the living only statistics

the cameras reappear
the headlines return
for the 'anniversary'
but the pain stays,
the rotten lungs
spit up globs of misery,
there is only a stink now
of indifference

The civilised world
doesn't tolerate
a politician slapped
or a businessman jailed

the armchair activists
only avoid looking
at an ugly haggard
called suffering

please tell them
that it is not fiction
an experiment gone wrong
the city of lakes
is a multitude of tragedies !

The Bhopal Gas Tragedy,considered one of the world's worst industrial catastrophes,occurred on the night of December 2–3, 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. A leak of methyl isocyanate gas and other chemicals from the plant resulted in the exposure of thousands of people.The initial effects of exposure were coughing, vomiting, severe eye irritation and a feeling of suffocation. Thousands of people had succumbed by the morning hours. There were mass funerals and mass cremations as well as disposal of bodies in the Narmada river. The stillbirth rate increased by up to 300% and neonatal mortality rate by 200%.It is estimated 100,000 to 200,000 people have permanent injuries. Reported symptoms are eye problems, respiratory difficulties, immune and neurological disorders, cardiac failure secondary to lung injury, female reproductive difficulties and birth defects among children born to affected women.The contamination and suffering continues.