Salad # 7 : Autopsy

I wrote this in 1984 shortly after witnessing an accident in Kolkata, in which a dog was run over and killed by a speeding truck, competing with another for road space.

Autopsy (1984)

Two trucks rumble
down a city street
pockmarked
with scars of the past.
Two trucks
and hardly enough space
between them
to slide in a
banana.
The bitch, in repose
some distance off
gets unsteadily to
her feet, her middle
heavy with the weight
of her litter.
She makes for the sidewalk….
what sidewalk ? This is Calcutta.
The trucks
pick up speed, each trying
to overtake the other
oblivious
to any other presence
before them.
A blare of horns
A screech of brakes
A minced oath
A muffled yelp
One trucker forges ahead
the other curses and resumes
pursuit.
The bitch lies a long time
mangled, like
wrung-out laundry.
Still, dead mother.
Still-born puppies.
It is evening; the carcass
has since been thrown into
an open drain
for carrion
to preside over it.
The Municipality, you see
is on strike today.
Soon, there is nothing left:a few bones maybe, as after
a chicken dinner.
What did you expect :
A procession ?
A burial ?
A period of mourning ?
There is no place here
for dogs
there are far too many already
most of them
on two legs.