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Thursday 6 June 2013

Let the Day Come …


Let the streaks of Dawn seep
thro my window blinds, driving
out the darkness to those hearts where they belong.

 Let the godly ‘ushath ‘hour come, spilling
solemnity and warmth over the universe, and cleansing
the Earth off its sins and impurities.

Let thick plumed birds of morn light
chirp in chorus from somnolent trees, making
the awful silence of night to vanish.

Let someone switch off the dull moon
and whitewash the grey sky. Let the
indolent night wind awakens in the scorching sun.

Let from my memory go off all black dreams I'd
the night before. Let the sun come,
burn out my fright and brighten up my hopes.

Let women wake up with a bang, hearing
temple bells, covering their bareness with hands
 looking impishly at their sleeping hubbies.

To wake up my love, to look at her cherubic
face in the daylight and to re-kindle my sagging spirits
let the Day come.

If the demon of night hugs you again, don’t
be afraid. For, the Angel of the Day will
soon bloom around you and take you back
in her gleaming golden lap.

[This poem just tries to mimic Jane Kenyon’s ‘Let Evening Come’]

Image courtesy: Google


Monday 3 June 2013

Wall of Shame!





 Wall of Shame!

For decades stood there in the village a wall
built with bricks of shame and tears of dalits.
Keeping in exile senses of mutual trust and honor
the upper caste built the wall, parading airs of supremacy.
A long and huge wall-- it wasn’t built by cement, but
by unjust and unruly ethics-- hatred being the Mason.
Poor dalits, mute they became seeing the wall in their way;
resigned timidly to their cell of subservience … a bequest
 they got from the Varnas. “It’s another albatross on our neck”
muttered the Dalits wrenching their hands in despair.
Happy they became when down went the wall of shame.
For, in its debris they saw no stones and bricks, but
the pride and arrogance of a haughty caste.
To the ground gone the village wall, but yet to go from
our minds is the sturdy wall of casteism, which
we still keep for revenge.

[A sturdy wall that was built across a village in South India which blocked the lower-castes to have access to the main road was recently demolished.]

Image courtesy: Google