The Cartoonist--R.K.Laxman

 
What supreme irony!
Not a farcical craft.
What satirical brilliance!
In all of his art.
The bold, black strokes
Provoke dark humour
Feed an inherent urge
For shared candour.
The unjaundiced vision
Creates a profusion
Of scathing critiques.
Caps each with a cryptic quote.
Captures in ink the bulbous nose.
Eagle eyes get to the thinning hair,
Bloated face or crafty glare.
He pins you down
You're caught like a clown
Helpless____
Your feet up in the air!

The parody of power-
The skeptic perceptions
Scorched in charcoal-
Not hiding in deceptions
The blatant truth.
In the starkest medium casts
Of black and white contrasts
Frames a fatal punch
Highlights a dubious hunch.
Finds for it a focus
A locus standi in the Press

Our Cartoonist keeps to an
Unobtrusive corner of his sketch,
Akin to the humbled commoner
Or the crumpled wretch;
Always dicernable
At momentous occasions
In fancy locations
That parade the invincible
Paragons and Pagans.

Amrita Chatterji.