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Writer's pictureNeil Nagwekar

Dictator of Discourse | TINTA Poems #14


58. Dictator of Discourse - Part I


That doddering old fool

With smile of cruel condescension

Deserves little description, yet here it is;

With myriads of apologies and dollops of apprehension.


Beware his piss-mouse hair, near head and small pair

Or the smile that is his toothy despair

And lips like dried blood and discordance

On which tongues sometimes dance like ugly serpents.

Not to mention his crippled hunched-back still intact

Until, praise the Devil, someone from the abode of the dead

Grants us salvation by spanking his spine of dread

Whilst dragging him to the depths of warm hell.


Such a malice is he,

But for now let us find him in his lair

Of spiral-bound false fables upon arranged tables

That he claims necessary to the progress of this varsity

And thus comprehend the magnitude of his monstrosity

And the absurdity of his stupidity.


His disciples were worse than their guru

Scratching virgin scrotums and sniffing on fingers

Burying Pinocchio noses in ponderous books until

The least comely woman in their dorky sight appears.

Then, pervy and pesky thoughts pervade their presence

As they finally acknowledge of their pedophilia the true essence.

Thus, like saggy-balled merchants giving life to art and advice

And like wilting muscle worth nothing to slave-traders

They become, seated in fettered silence in front of their king of

Lies, whom they love as much as they heartily despise.


These disciples are but mice, and the teacher their king.

This ultimate, crooked canvass of despair smiled

Upon the rabble with homely, rat-like grin

And decided it was time to commence the dawn of the din.

He proclaimed, perched on his pernicious podium:

“The mice are in the den! Close the doors!

Hear one, hear all! Let the brain-cleansing begin!”


59. Dictator of Discourse - Part II


With tensing belt and toad-like felt

And a face at which Prufrock would bawl

A face great demons would dread to recall

A face that Dalai Lama prayed died last fall,

He cleared his croak, an instrument hitherto in repose

And commenced speaking; voice limp and morose.


“Art must be independent,” said he.

“On no art must art stay dependent.

Art is a responsibility available for the worthy.

Art must be set free, like daffodils among a lily.

Art is a darting rabbit, a flying bird, a dancing tree.


“As artists we must strive to be art.

We must dance to tunes of Beethoven and Mozart,

From the sorry state of sold-out stories depart

Until the separation of the head from the heart

Is complete, and even flowers can be smelled from fart.”


The words rang true against tests of acid and steel

But the aged oaf could not practice as he preached

As he remained caged to the knowledge of the reams

Of the bound books; chained by their rigid philosophy.


With scent of rose and honey, shining when opened

These tomes demanded all authority and credit

Yet their words were worse than water mixed with lead

Or phenyl and phlegm brewed with cheap mead.

“All opinions matter, all opinions count,” the volumes said:

“And nothing you say will change that fact.”

A sentence that gave great pleasure to that rat.


The irony had danced through like rabid dogs

Yet that repulsive reptile with face of frog

Failed miserably to look past even this simple fog.

That weasel worthy of no wisdom had the actual audacity

To act as an allocator of truth; dispensing dungs to disciples

With the confidence of a conman.

He polluted the minds of many mice

Without hunch, in a trice; without comprehending

An iota of the spirit of the law, and in his false pedagogy

Danced with the gods of villainy.


60. Dictator of Discourse - Part III


“Professor.” A mouse raised his hand.

“Would it not be better if such-and-such-and-this-and-that?”

God bodkins, noted the teacher with startling look!

His answer is true, succinct and sublime!

His answer is true… but not in accord of any book.

His answer is true, but unfortunately not of mine.


“That answer is wrong, better luck next time!”


Another man knows that to stop this tyranny is folly

Yet he raises his hand with the quintessence of chivalry.

“Professor,” says he, “surely such-and-such

And-much-and-much-and-thy-and-thee?

Surely you are wrong, and correct is me?”


Now the rat-like grin disappears

And malice in his eyes reappears.

Let me explain to you carefully, thinks he

On how and why you must listen to me.

“You challenge me? Here’s the spotlight!

Feel the wrath of my myopia, of my dead eye!

Drown in my back-answers and interruptions!

Dread in my useless and pointless digressions!

Die in the giggles around you that I will inspire!

Perspire until the spark in you will expire!

Kill your dreams, your darlings and all your desire!”


As the man turned mice slinks in his chair

It is now that we must note a fact so rare:

That the ego of this toad must be dealt with great care.


This vain old buffoon finds in the shackles of truth delight.

He mines his truth and makes it ours

Repeats the same three words within the bowers

Of the books, for fear for finding truths

That may threaten his addled-minded stances

Or provoke him to scan data with more than two glances.

After all, why find in life an original thought

When at the bookstore they can be sold and bought?


Kissing thumbs and index

While harmonizing with hands the death of sound and music

He continues; lathers, rinses and repeats till millennia

Dancing with the same script ad nausea.


But the true tragedy will lie at the end of the coursework

When humans turned rats will carry on his dull work

When this rodent will breed more rodents

And varsities will turn into temples for rats—

Grading like birdbrains, munching on dead brains

Inducing chest pains and dancing when hell rains.

 

P.S. I hid behind the moniker of TINTA since the account was opened on Instagram. Truth be told, this has always been my natural impulse. If I had my way, none of my works would be attributed to me. I write a lot of miserable stuff, which I don’t want attributed to my character. I am proud of my writing, but it is also comfortably the worst of me—where my most cynical, nihilist and antisocial tendencies come to fruit.


For a while, I hoped I could hide behind TINTA forever. Perhaps anonymity is cowardice, but it has always been my impulse. But people tell me there’s nothing sustainable about the moniker strategy—that I must put my name, centralize my content, ensure I take credit for everything in a brutal industry, blah blah blah.


So, briefly, let me introduce myself: I am Neil Nagwekar from Mumbai, India.


I don’t plan on abandoning the moniker TINTA though. Because there is a story behind TINTA, and I think it will take quite some time for it to be completed.


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