Poem – The Cynic Loggerhead

The lonely tree

The bustling wind, a storm of dust
And the skies so dark, as if colluding a plot.
A light drizzle – the monsoon forays over land’s emotions,
Taking me back to where my memories rest.

I see people running across the streets
Looking for cover from the swelling rain;
Alien to the feeling that raindrops bring
Trying to not get wet, although inside drenched in pain.

We see things but we do not truly perceive
I am no visitor to this lane,I walk this road, everyday.
I never before felt the presence, but now I see,
And there in the corner now, I saw this lonely tree…

(to be Contd.)

Silence

There’s a silence that we all yearn for
There’s a darkness we all seek
Away from this busy place, a vaccum,
A little space is what we all are looking for.

Months & seasons pass unsaid
Marching towards an end so obscure;
While we’re running the race we’ll never complete
With no one to farewell when your time’s deplete.

We long for the silence, a sense of nothingness.
To fall in that dream – the well of unending depth.
Where even a whisper is noise, an oddity
The warmth of absolute calmness, an empty silence…

The curious case of UPSC Mains

The sun rose with such terrifying suddenness;
The day seemed normal, clear and humid.
But why does it feel like time’s marching too fast?
Is it just me, or is there anyone else so aghast?

Trees shedding leaves, welcome our troubled faces
They remind me, oh, how the seasons pass by
Every single year, every winter season,
They welcome these students, lost in rumination

I took many pens- a gel, a ball, and two pilots
Praying to god, “Please, let there be a question on millets”
So begins the ordeal of UPSC Mains,
The riddle of headaches and god knows, how many other pains.

No Thanks!

Don’t you hate it when within days of updating an app, it turns obsolete and we are forced to update as if there is a significant change in its utility?

Things have changed today from yesterday

Yet the eyes barely notice a difference

Habitus exerts it’s coercion, a nudge

But I refuse to give in to the force and budge.

I’m thinking & worried at the pace things change

Yesterday did not seem so bad or strange

I know in time, I’ll give in to this coercion

But for now I don’t want an update, so ‘No Thanks!’

Dignity & Pandemic

Chilling night, lit by pyres burning everywhere,
Ears flooded with cries of the helpless that went unheard
Pavements surrounded with corpses and despair
Praying, begging, crying just for a gasp of air….

Waiting their turn to burn their loved ones
To bid farewell and apologise
For denying them the dignity that every being deserves
For the moments of suffering they endured, struggling for a breath.

It’s all over now, but the ground under is slipping
The uncertainty of life or even a dignified death, is frightening.
It’s become a privilege in these times to have someone near
When you leave this world, bidding goodbye to this inferno and fear.