Ajoba,
Dandi marched
Eksar Road,
December morning,
for a blood test
ordered by the doctor.
Climbed a floor,
collected a token
at the lab;
edgy,
on the lip of a sofa,
when a nurse called:
'Zero number'.
Tapping a walking stick,
Zero number walked to an arm
chair,
flopped into it.
Nurse asked his age;
Zero number replied: 'maithi nahi'.
She thrust a needle into
a torniquet arm;
blood did not flow;
pricked a second time;
no blood.
Zero number
unpocketed a disabled sparrow
picked on the march;
Nurse needled the bird;
bloodless.
Nurse hailed nurse,
the lab called police;
Zero number
was put against a wall,
searched,
a beedi fell out;
'Terrorist' breathed inspector;
Zero number
begged for matches
to light the fallen beedi;
denied.
'No clues;
No blood spills.
No kills.'
Noted the inspector
in a pocket book.
Zero number,
with sparrow
perched on head,
Dandi marched
home.
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