Against our dream of a land beyond the earth
Dr. Manas Bakshi
One day everyone reaches
The ultimate destination,
Is that fulfilment
Or the end of all sublunar expectations?
Trying to know it beforehand
Is more or less
Unveiling the mystery
Of a cosy city
From a smothering island –
May there be
The paths of poetry all unwinding
As petals of reality
And a surgent time cooling down
Against the face of man and woman
Taking a view of life
Abuzz with flowers, fruits and fervour
Faring mostly in a fairly tale,
May be there man and woman
Have their own logical differences
With the lessons from the sustained battle
Of an embodiment
Have their myths too
Different from the ones
We can interpret with
The blindness of Dhritarashtra,
The paleness of Pandu
And the hypocrisy of Sakuni,
But hardly they’ve faced
A war of life as we do –
A war of life that begins
With the pangs of a barren field
And ends with the pleasure
Of harvest reaped
Marking the ultimate truths of life
For neither heaven nor hell
But for humanity
In this strife-stricken world
To
survive till the cosmic end.