SECOND HAND

 SECOND HAND

 

That was the busiest street, lighted,

Flows of traffic, relentless, hypnotic,

Resemblance the lifestream lighted,

Matching color spectrum myriad mind,

Urban-human intoxicated, hues mingle,

Infect city noise, bustling with people,

Crowded malls, hotels, bars, restaurants,

Eateries, exotic, aromatic, magnetic pull,

The evening covering dense mist weaves,

Thickening family bond fluorescent homes,

The laughter, fun, roars of hearty invitations,

Uniting people at home from hard work,

Tired limbs demanding to relax calmly,

Quiet fountains of love spring forth,

Escaping out of windows music, gossip,

A bystander  resembles a ghost looks,

Vanished in a few seconds a few days after,

Hard to recognize the city, its beautiful street,

No trace of these crowded market buildings,

No trace of high-rise residential blocks,

No traces of narrow lanes once romantic,

Heaps of dust rubbles strewn half hazard,

Evening settles, freezing temperature, dark,

No electricity and a few are sitting huddled,

Watching the bricks and cement slabs topple,

Their families are under the ruins lying,

Never could know living or dead pray,

Wait to be rescued search continues,

Piercing darkness torchlight focused,

Sniff dogs are moving to sense life,

Pokes nose into every crevasse hole,

Paws remove dirt tried hard to detect,

Sensing barks the dog a feeble sound,

Tearing the cement slabs escapes a cry,

Judge rescue teams drilling concrete,

Removes sand and mortar from space,

Pressed in clothes a child's head,

Moving slightly in a small gap, news,

These steel nerves fight tooth and nail,

Come out a little girl alive surrounds local,

The happiness unearthly in disbelief,

The smell of life now realizing stunned onlookers,

A puppy, a few more children, dead bodies,

Scramble these daredevil men to ruins,

Sense, detect, fight to enter, mindboggling,

Time shows humans to sense the aspect,

Life, only life, is so important to rescue,

Accepts the fact survival is most urgent,

The watch tower in a distant city noted,

Ringing the second-hand alerts a sniffing army,

Every second is critical save a life,

The remnants  tomorrow may surprise,

May surprise the world community shaken,

Century's biggest disaster earthquake,

Decades will roll, forgotten, the departed,

Just a sad memory of the past, a tear, and love,

Lost parents, children, relatives in heart,

Life surprises to rebuild the city boulevard,

A new generation has never seen the holocaust,

Only heard and by reading a heart-rending story,

The second hand still ticking impassionate,

Neither in sorrow nor ecstatic but hypnotic,

The lifestreams eternal resurrect again and grows,

The fountain of life pierces a hard-rock flow,

But life notices, but an important aspect,

Today's surviving girl will be a mother,

Cooking aromatic dishes for the family,

Children are singing, making fun,

The evening approached arrived,

Here is her love, handsome husband,

Tired and relaxing at home, sipping wine,

The wine to intoxicate, second-hand chime.

 

Pen: Bijayananda Mishra

Title of Poem: Second Hand

Themes: Every second alert a life waits

Date: 11th February 2023, Cuttack

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