DENIAL

 

DENIAL

 

Fascinating entertainment exists,

Ceremonies ancient is a tradition,

Generations, forefather pilgrimage,

Having a dip in rivers felt sacred,

Offers drops of water, hands lifted,

Cupped in palms in front of the sun,

Waist deep river water, pray heaven,

Where ever spirits stay satiate thirst,

Offered cooked rice on river sand,

Trust morsels of food meet hunger,

Lived through times and auspicious,

Immersion of ashes in river water,

Consider pious mind for salvation,

Life never will take rebirth in peace,

A permanent place to be in heaven,

Post-cremation rights sons obeyed,

Completed the duty for the late father,

Brothers accompany for rituals,

The eldest son's right is accomplished,

Immersion of father's piece of bone,

Complete with chanting and praying,

Cooked rice, offered on leaves,

Bathed on the holy river, returned,

Missing the sisters denied,

Once married, adopt an in-law family,

Not authorized to ignite the pyre,

Rights son performs for the parent,

The daughter is denied to perform,

Participates as invitee custom,

The denial is the root flourished,

Family treats for an inheritance,

Parent's assets shared by sons,

Early childhood brother sister,

Play together, fail to imagine a wall,

Grow children, a mother prays,

Entire attention son hijacks,

Prayer, fasting, holy fire ceremony,

Completed desperately inspiringly,

For long life, a good family, children,

Parents dream of  grandchildren,

Son's education cost is noticeable,

A girl child growing grows concerned,

Nothing for education career status,

A family gets alarmed daughter bright,

Highly educated, job remunerative,

Established independent helps home,

Happy parents outward, worried,

Marriage is the factor that churns the heart,

Fails to get an established family,

Marriage gifts daydream for a parent,

Love marriage by daughter is tainted,

Society ostracizes the family outcast,

No difficulty for inter-caste marriage,

If a son is getting married, parents allow,

Relation grudgingly keeps silent attend,

A daughter as if a burden from birth,

Parents seek early marriage bargains,

Gifts during marriage continue after,

Relaxed family daughters are married,

Mother's heart gets lighter, speaks less,

Fact or fiction denial rock etched,

Bride-burning tortures hunted past,

Dowry the curse of Hindu society,

How many young women suffered,

Parents beg for mercy, save a daughter,

Evil practices are crime, prejudices exist,

A daughter becomes a daughter-in-law

A daughter, why leads a life of denial?

The denial, educated life feels ashamed.

 

@ Bijayananda Mishra

 

POSTBOX

POSTBOX

 

Scintillating memories evoke,

The red box at the corner road,

Visiting the place for childhood often,

Drop post cards envelop, remember,

Visible easily at every street corner,

Invaluable service for generation,

In remote villages, it was only a help,

Faithful service was inconceivable,

Only medium to communicate far,

An age absent rural telephones,

Postcard our milestone to inform,

Exchanging information needed,

Cities were growing with time,

Rural people migrating for work,

Avenues of life postcard duly linked,

Money orders, the way to send money,

Texts under money order with cash,

Family in villages, men in cities,

Children going to distant colleges,

Postbox was regularly attended to,

Postman collects letters in time,

Deposited at a post office in slots,

Post bags were transported in a van,

Far-flung areas sent by train,

Mail through flight for urgent one,

Telegram is possible in the post office,

Looked at a postbox near home,

Stream of thought passed linking,

Modern life is innovative adoptive,

The new method of letter travels,

Courier then email got popular,

Searches none postbox recently,

Many things are required in our life,

Vanishing, phased out gradually,

HMT watch fountain pen missing,

Lantern pillars at street corners miss,

Postbox lingers, fighting for life,

Our generation still love post office,

Need postbox, drop the parcel in packets,

Courier killer service parallel job,

Private efficiency defeats center,

 The fax was convenient for people,

Sending letter pads by digital copy,

On telephone lines transmitted,

Reprints a fax machine at the other end,

Telephone and fax transformed,

Digital age quick delivery feature,

Fewer people search postbox, thus,

Poor people require its service,

In remote villages, life needs it,

Village post offices for population,

Easy for children to drop mail,

Senior people prefer to visit,

Drop the letter and forget,

Trust for postal service nostalgic,

Old habits, dying hard,

Remember places to find the red box,

Symbol of yesteryears for mail,

Timeless, loved as a shining glory.

 

@ Bijayananda Mishra

 

( HMT, Hindustan Machine Tools

a corporation of the Central Government

Manufacturing watch closed)

    

IMPETUS

 

IMPETUS

 

 Confess secrets of my life,

The heart bit had been colored,

The color was changing so often,

The culprit was the mind coaxed,

Played with my life, sought pleasure,

Hues changing due askance lit,

Tell my life story of hard work,

Smolder desires caught dreams,

Hard work, touchstone magic,

Turned everything into reality,

In time, it gradual changed my life,

Youth period of study, job faced,

It happened success feather touch,

Grab in time or slips for good,

Opportunity never comes again,

 The second time rejected a delusion,

Burned midnight lamp to work,

Achiever a false name performed,

Got a good job, a flourishing career,

Touchstone monthly compensated,

Admit got what luxury means,

Asset to gadgets searched the best,

Least worried, to pay and acquired,

My residence was the epitome to show,

Selected trending standard items,

Decades I spent accumulated,

Tell surprisingly confide to you,

Dissatisfied, frustrated, angry life,

Mind turbulent tortured hell,

Drinking conceivable pleasures,

Tried to hoodwink impulse killing,

Failed to define pleasures, perfect,

Drink the elixir of love betrayal flavor,

Intention lurked in the guise of gold,

Denied, deserted, life single, probing,

Where lies the true satisfaction, links,

Linking to what valuable items,

Balance is in weight like to spend,

A futile effort  to read books, studies,

No ready answer got suggested,

Queried learned people learned,

Hour-long lecture advises failed,

Tell, you frankly mind was wild,

Behaved like a monkey tore papers,

The booked tickets for travel,

Torn tickets were looked at vainly,

Canceled the tour vacation,

Waited impatiently, only now socked,

First time felt fail to understand,

Never understood mind its prowess,

Impetus misunderstood conned,

Tricked mind my heart was playing,

Hardly could digest mind cons,

Betrayed conscience fools the soul,

Thinking how peace will creep nicely,

Finds my heart true love selfless,

Again I can smile heartily  to dance,

Life is precious, but tomorrow is not an end,

I sought help from enlightened,

Knew after practice fruitless,

What I have not achieved amassed!

A night of peaceful sleep passed,

Is it peace so rare priceless a truth,

Can't I purchase, spend everything,

None could answer convince me,

Searching for the unique impetus,

The city once walking in the road,

Found an octogenarian man I met,

A loincloth, bare chest, no shoes,

Long beards, bright eyes, healthy,

Surprised, introduced, inquired,

Got an answer to find peace, simple,

Approaching ninety years single,

Practically without assets or a home,

Healthy, agile, spirit energetic,

Answered the peace, is in your mind,

Difficult to search for peace outside,

Win an unruly mind to get an impetus.

 

@ Bijayananda Mishra

 

WASHOUT

 WASHOUT

 

Right fellows, I feared for life,

Myopia crawling in my nerves,

The feeling when it is dark, sickening,

Start trembling at my shadows,

At the sight of a spider shrieking,

A widening net at the corner of a wall,

Unexplained hunting effects,

As if someone is planning my death,

Closed windows come evening,

Unexpected vent lurking there,

Outside my house, wait patiently,

Watch me alert for movements,

Felt one following me,

Stopped walking on the road,

Shopping malls lighted noisy,

Spreading beautiful music,

Ecstatic old film songs, enjoyable,

Sensed my heart, hunting melody,

Shivered on the open ground, paralyzed,

Music I felt only for me, a message,

Dissected meanings of the film song,

Apparently felt words reading me,

How come they played a song?

The way I feel these days in fear,

Fearing now people crowded place,

Who knows, killers are waiting,

The story is not fiction the truth,

Thousand innocent humans feel,

Feel exactly like this never says,

Ask inquisitively, goes a face pale,

Acts like unaware, least affected,

Fear the media, political leaders,

Worried about children, innocent,

Fear kidnapping family members,

Anticipate finding dead bodies,

In most undesirable places  laying,

Every call in mobile shrinking,

Sense Halloween ghost calls,

A nameless, faceless voice disturbs,

Fails to trap number anonymous,

Pay fortune details demarcated,

Informing police, disaster waiting,

How many corporate leaders got,

Film personalities, business people,

How many young girls of repute,

Get a threatening call with impunity,

Sterile arms of law police clueless,

The underworld thrives, growing,

Multi-headed hydra hot news,

Growing up at another place or time,

Maybe a male or female voice,

Threat decent people with pictures,

Honey-trapped men victimized,

Silently bleeding, fear a revelation,

Fear for self-image, status, family,

Evil grows at an unthinkable locality,

Posh locality suave personality exists,

Car, bungalows, business unknown,

A crowd enters villas in late hours,

Hardly local people know them,

Shadowy perused invite dander,

Stops telling our civil society,

Urban life, rich and famous, respected,

Protected, move freely, speak,

Listen to voice obeyed in respect,

Watched this picture silently, willfully,

Safe and secured, looked away,

Saving myself the wisest decision.

Halt, hello, educated, intelligent one,

Society found wolves hunting,

Catching evil life cut short guise,

Exposed before media by dawn,

Alacrity news spread length-breadth,

Collapses evil empire suddenly,

Fled the country or imprisoned,

The head of the hydra sees washout.

 

@ Bijayananda Mishra

MELLOWED

 

MELLOWED

  

For you, the reality, dream for the rest,

Parents caring or Godly seen exceptions,

Hope to become rich someday,

Fulfills a child father's aspirations,

Fortunate, if mother sold her gold,

Provide funds for overseas study,

Rehabilitates parents at an old age,

How many stories circulate media,

A few parents help, obliging children,

Grew in rich family life was sweet,

Parents provided everything but wanted,

Good dress, college expenses cost,

Got a personal car when an adult,

A gift from my father surprised me,

I also saw such news in the media,

Felt my parents equally loving,

Fortunately, my father was wealthy,

What I have seen mother loved him,

Saw her busy serving dedicated,

His dress, lunch, dinner, medicines,

Very often on tour, prepare baggage,

Never questioned his income, bank,

Trusting her husband, I idolized,

My case matches exactly parents,

Fortunate, father rich supporting,

Never had seen he enquired me,

My study, results, hope future,

Socked one day confess to you,

Mother once was sobbing and sad,

Surprised with so many servants,

All her expenses are met by my dad,

Difficult to understand, her agonies,

Enquired many times but failed,

Kept secret her pathos in her heart,

Alerted their relations worsening,

One night witnessed a violent conflict,

Dad was rebuking her threatened too,

Warning her of separation quickly,

Mom was crying bitterly and angry,

Accused him looked scornfully,

What will your child learn?

That you did heinously, please stop,

Keep secret, for your son, I plead,

Your son respects you like God,

Dad slapped mother quit suddenly,

The sweet home changed then,

A ghost house silent, dark in the night,

Felt how unlucky as a son for dad,

Came to know later on his drinking,

His party life was eventful, shady,

Corruption crept into his vein,

Mom knew in detail was anxious,

Concerned about dad's health report,

A health problem rose unnoticed,

The doctor warned it may cripple him,

Dad was angry with mom slapped,

This was a story family shattered,

Shattered myself and mom together,

Discovered mom clearly mellowed,

Silent and simple, her life thoughtful,

No more crying looked at windows,

Perhaps hoped her husband return,

We found him in a hospital,

Mellowed was his face wrinkled,

Begged to be forgiven, breathed last,

Our life in color took mother home,

She caught my hand, left the hospital,

Mellowed a life-in-hues message for me.

 

@ Bijayananda Mishra

 

 

SECONDS

 

SECONDS

 

Write my emotions crushing,

Felt like missing these days a presence,

Parents no more lone soul,

Languishing in solitude in pain,

Incredible nature is attractive,

Inviting incessant my soul to merge,

Merge with wet winds morn moisture,

The aroma of rain-soaked fields,

Humming bees to amuse the mind,

Sleep on the ground, inhale freshness,

Never alone forget solitude,

Happy families, parents, children,

You passed high school with flying colors,

Everything was moving slowly,

My childhood and youth vividly,

Slow motion pictures floated pricked,

Dear girl, once we were friends,

How close our life schooldays,

You went to medical college far,

I struck with aged parents here,

 An only child for them life compelled,

Force conscience to serve parents,

Father expired a few years after,

Mother and son, our world is sweet,

Find the job of a school teacher,

Our small home is peaceful for both,

I rarely aspired for city life,

Loved village children, folks,

Getting respect means, to live working,

Fell ill, my mother, I took her to the city,

Seriously ill, got treated in hospital,

Hurting expenditure  on medicine costs,

She felt better the situation worsened,

How surprised Godsend, met you,

In doctor's apron, surmised quickly,

Kindly you stayed that night,

Treating my mother in delirium,

I looked at the screen graphs,

Dripping from the saline bottle by drop,

Each drop a second those seconds,

Apparent for me an age timeless,

I saw you are praying for her,

Unconscious, her limbs were inert,

You intimated to me her demise,

Hoarse whispering to my ear,

It was saturated with sadness,

I never cried during those moments,

Those seconds I felt empty, unreal,

Write this letter, my dear, to you,

Living alone in this world of wild grass,

Unwanted, only you came to me,

Hardly we can be united again,

This unlucky person posted a letter,

Sleeping in his beautiful home,

For days the door has not opened,

Perhaps he is sick, weak in heart,

Melancholy has been killing a lot,

The impetus to live be happy rootless,

Alarmed by a few knocks at the door,

A week since he posted his letter,

Opened the door and found her,

Accepted the proposal of marriage,

No more to perish life precious,

Kept in mind to marry someday,

She can't allow herself to lose him,

The school teacher listened to her,

Those seconds seemed motionless.

 

@ Bijayananda Mishra