Prayers for Goa

We hang like a pendulum
From the Center
Striking every hour
With impatience.

New parties
Joint figureheads
Over-stuffed independents
Wait
In the wings
For their cue
To take the stage
And holler
To all Goans
That peace and prosperity
Will be theirs
Tomorrow.
Always tomorrow.

O my God, let's forget about tomorrow.
Help us live today in peace.

Music
The very spirit
of Goa
Must now be stopped
At 11 p.m.
Precisely
Or face the bench
With Noise Pollution
Together
With the Rent Act
Anti-corruption

Right to Information
And other mundane
Every-day
Non-Goan
Sins.

Words
Scattered
And flung
And squeezed
Into every side door
To make language
More important
Than people
Who speak.

Lord, do you have a language to say "I love you"
We need to learn your language.

^gnAnita Pinto