Silently Screaming (Me and Bhopal)

Eight years old, brown sofa, on the news

Far away factory burns,

Exhaling poison smoke into distant TV city

Human Impact Unknown

Eighteen years old, A’Levels, chemistry class

Union Carbide chemical disaster

Pumped cyanide gases into Bhopal’s homes

Human Impact Catastrophic

Thirty, kitchen table, in the junk mail

Disaster appeal donations sent

Respiratory illness precedes congenital defects

Human Impact Ongoing

Thirty Three, Morocco, Indra Sinha’s novel

Negligent Kampani’s Faktory exploded

Breathing impossible baby left in the Bastis

Human Impact Personal

Thirty Five, Bhopal, Sambhvana Clinic

Gas exposure, water contamination

Conventional medicine follows indigenous treatments

Human Impact Documented

Thirty Five, Bhopal, Chingari Trust

Physical Therapies, Special Education

Shaking the distorted hands of misshapen children

Human Impact Unending?

Thirty Five Bhopal, in the Bastis

Silently screaming, grief and anger

into Dow’s forgotten factory’s walls

Human Impact Ignored

Factory Site Now

NB The Bastis are the Slums