Psychoanalysis of the Cab Driver from the Rear Seat

poetry by Aditya Shankar

[plain working
            steering at optimum curvatures]
 
                                    [daydreaming from his shabby
           uniform about owning a fleet of cars]
 
[listening to the zen of engines
           tuning to perfection]
 
                                  [linking a car hood noise
                      and its maintenance bill
           with the overlapping due date
of  his daughter’s school fees]
 
[worrying about debt and paying up
          in installments to the garage owner]
                                   [deciding against it
         worrying about the dressing down]
 
[thinking about pledging his
         wife’s ornaments or remembering]
                       [how the last piece of valuable
         at home is already pledged]
 
[how he has always been broke:
             how he could never have a family,]
                          [never walk back to his parents
             an achiever, that he hid himself
in drugs and alcohol]
 
[lived out of de-addiction centers,
              asylums, police stations with cases of theft,
              bookings under goonda act]
 
[a rapist under trial,
             a runaway convict,
                         a pimp with tarts warming my seat,
             a bootlegger bribing the patrol]
 
[On the way
             to meet one of the agents]
                      child lock to keep me trapped,
             crowbar to break open the skull
             if it is a no]
 
[or plain using the rear-view mirror
                         and I should be looking away,]
              easing out into the scenery that
rushes past the window.]
 
[night scripts a silent drama.
                          Stage: Cab
         Actors: passenger, cab driver (unnamed)]

About the writer

Aditya Shankar is an Indian poet, flash fiction author, and translator. His work has appeared in literary journals of repute and nominated for literary awards, including Best of the Net. Books: After Seeing (2006), Party Poopers (2014), XXL (Dhauli Books, 2018). He lives in Bangalore, India.
Instagram: adityan.s
Twitter: @suncave