Agapur

Ferryboat 'Agapur' receives the SUV from the river.

 

Guinevere mourns the death of King Arthur.

-Brian Mendonca

The Agapur ferries

four bodies to shore

from river bed to Agassaim

across the bridge to the North.

The Zuari rescinds

its guests of the night

From faraway Loutolim

All churned into dust.

Navy divers

fasten the hulk

Pressure at 50 metres

as the tide moves in.

Commissioned in 2018

the Agapur ferries the souls

like Charon across the Styx

from the world of the living

-to the world of the dead.

8334 the sum is 18

A son orphaned, all of 12.

Murky waters cover the secrets

of Goa's largest river.

Saviour of the World

Thy cup runneth over

'Don bhata haee, sheta haee, 

cazu, ambe haee, ponos bhi hain.'

----------------------------

The SUV Duster smashed the guard railing of the Zuari bridge and fell into the Zuari river, Goa at around 12.45 a.m. on the intervening night of 27-28 July 2022. Four occupants met with a watery end. The SUV was retrieved after 12 hours. 

Notes

Charon: (Greek myth) the ferryman of Hades who carried the souls of those who had just died, across the river Styx that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. 

Don bhata  . . . (Konkani) ['They have two plots of land, fields, cashew trees, mango trees, jackfruit as well.] Dialogue in Saxtti Konkani by Priscilla Tavares Cruz from the film Nachoiam Kumpasar (2014). Priscilla Cruz (53) was one of the four who passed away in the accident.

Saviour of the World: Name of the church in Loutolim where the last rites were conducted.

Drawing by Elizabeth Sidall Rossetti titled 'King Arthur's Death' (c.1859-62).  Courtesy artmuseum.princeton(dot)edu.