Sunburn They muted us with a poisonous smile and political power. Then they beheaded our hills, massacred trees, buried ponds… We mistook their new concrete buildings for development. They sit in the chill of a/c rooms with prostitutes. Venom from their deeds’ fangs affects the earth’s organs. Climate malfunctions. Embryo of rain dies in the womb of cloud. Sand suffers from dehydration. These red wild blossoms are nature’s fury, burning bright on the branches. This isn’t sunlight, but a pyre. Life’s wings are being burnt. Butterflies don’t decorate plants. Flowers are like breasts of silent starving women. Even a tough crow doesn’t dare to fly. A poor peasant falls down, thrust with sun’s arrows, in his field of parched dreams. Sunburn is our annihilation’s developmental stage. My poetic response to climate change in Kerala State. The poem was first published in 'Adhyapaka Lokam' , India, and then reprinted in 'Kanoli Kaleidoscope, by PunksWritePoemsPress, US, again in issue 15 of The Literary Hatchet by Pear Tree Press, US, and finally in Poetic Hustles, by Black Freighter Productions, US.