Armored Personnel Carrier
10 tons of angry seaweed green, a weighty sight when
viewed from Dal Lake in a languidly rocking shikara
the APC’s slits, the narrowed eyes of a suspicious lover
the shikara’s school bus yellow contrasts with the drab compound
that the APC guards
an abandoned hotel, confiscated and re-purposed
makeshift sheet metal walls topped with coils of concertina wire
Beirut, bullets swapped for rocks
a ramshackle guard tower of framing timbers and plywood
is painted green and draped with a camo netting
that serves only to create shadows
remind the guards they are still in the Army
camouflage that doesn’t blend with a decrepit block hotel
transformed into a hive of paramilitary activity
Shikara on Dal Lake
By B Gourley in India, poem, Poetry on February 7, 2017.
