Administrative cage

Administrative cage

Her seats switched on to work

The stereotyped clever clerk

Wrapped in neat yellow sari,

Flipped files in a flurry

Right wrist making a pugilistic move on the desk

Left wrist holding the sari top akimbo like a Kathak dancer;

Money holds this woman in office,

Her skin’s folds unfold the mystery

Of her age, while the Parker Duofold

Ploughed through page after page

She hardly lifted her face,

Imbued perhaps with grace

Noticeable, probably, during the post prandial nap.

She bundles documents narrating how

Law errs in the hands of lawyers,

Justice denied by clever interpretation.

That’s why, perhaps, while reading the files she turned red with rage

But continued to prod page after page

This clever clerk struck in administrative cage.