SHACKLE

 

SHACKLE

 

 

Life mysteriously differs at birth,

Varied class, community, religion,

Varies caste, color, language bitter,

On the lap of a mother, same is a baby,

Human beliefs define divinity,

Innocence never finds baby shares,

Simple smiles ignore any dislike or anger,

Plays with people, little differentiates,

Hugs simply, play fun with evil,

Tell me, if a baby fears death,

Ever fear of injury, pain for insult,

Answer smiling baby resembles God,

Mother first teacher instills a voice,

The tongue of a child replicates her talk,

Language thousand human voices,

World over baby differed instantly,

Laughed silently, baby on soil,

Differ nationality acquire automatic,

Tongues differentiate instantly,

Some English, next German, a list,

Grows baby, as a child learns,

Dress, food, and lifestyle change widely,

A child in Sahara to Tundra,

A child white in color or Africa,

Face mongoloid golden color, east,

Generation on earth follow their races,

Human seeks God worldwide, pray,

Could not find the physical presence of God,

Millions pray in church Masjid temple,

Jihadist, Allah love your heart,

Hands colored with human blood,

Crusader still Jesus love you,

Ignores killing forgive instantly,

Hello, Hindu warrior, behead other,

Lord has forgiven you serving faith,

Lord listens to prayers desperate,

Lack of innocence of a baby newborn,

Crying a baby mother at side feeds,

Less differentiated breast oozes instantly,

Lord with motherly love, O’ human,

Ever you observed Lord is mother,

Look minutely at the soil under feet,

Land, your mother, least differentiate,

No difference for her, jihad, crusade,

Differentiate less a swastika, feeds,

All her children, her breasts oozing,

Oozed millet, milk, you drink,

Muslim, you grow, hell and hearty,

Christian, you are wealthy,

Hindu, a billion on her bosom,

A child learns as Kashmiri or Kerali,

Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi, Bengali, Oriya,

How many types of Mother’s milk,

Taste water of Kavery, Godavari, Ganga,

Ever O’ Bharatiya felt differently,

Mother feeds you a baby for her,

Bountiful fertile soil, golden grains,

Tilak red-colored or crescent,

Grains stamped with a cross, answer,

Ever motherland denied you,

The shackle self-chosen, you show,

You show Bible, Quran, Gita barricade,

Shackled children on tongue speak,

Shackle on cast, Jadav, Brahmin,  

Rajput, Kshyatriya, Thakur, gender,

Caste longer than Ganges Baby in shackles,

In shackle, life seeks God, freedom,

Shackle subtle humanity cursed,

Freedom illusory Almighty is invisible.

 

@ Bijayananda Mishra

 

DEBACLE

 

DEBACLE

 

Exorbitant constructions near,

Villagers build embankment high,

The river bends near the village,

Wider river bed sandy year long,

Bluewater for months rest muddy,

Worth sight children swimming happy,

Bathing ghat villagers delight,

Wonderful sight washerman busy,

Women bathe in separate ghat,

Brushing teeth, washing cloth,

Collect water carry earthen pots,

Astonishing pot on head balanced,

They walked miles to the village,

Village life is never happier river helps,

White furs long stick outgrowth,

A sight nostalgic play with the wind,

Village life is likewise wavy ecstatic,

Early morning peasants get busy,

Lifts water from the river by well-pole,

Shaduf hundred raise water to canals,

Much later, diesel pump with pipes,

Irrigated fertile soil vegetation,

I was thinking of fresh vegetable millet,

Big banyan trees on the other side,

An earthen road rises to embankments,

Acres of empty field shaded by trees,

Village hat my mesmerizing youth,

From buttons to wooden furniture on sale,

Pumpkins to potatoes, A to Z,

Corn, millets, grain bargain watching,

Worth bargain barter for rice, cattle,

Cows, bullock, and ox are sold at a  price,

Goat, hen, sheep marketed in a market,

Early dawn once a week to evening,

A cluster of nearby villages depends totally,

Women purchase saree, vermilion, bangle,

Comb, hairpin, safety pin, needle, thread,

Monthly need for mother, they purchase,

Steamed rice grains, potato curry,

Millet cakes with curd, spices,

Dreams for eateries, aromatic young life,

I was lost in thoughts night was dark,

Sleeping on highway pitch road,

A canvas tent with a kerosene stove,

Stay with family, my children,

Brought our domestic cow few goats,

Tied to my tent with lined tents,

Thousand villagers, womenfolk,

Children crying loudly, sick, hungry,

It was pouring rain-soaked to the bone,

Few serve cooked rice, biscuit, cloth,

Medicine for the sick, milk powder, soap,

Water canes distributed to marooned,

Below water covers till the horizon, gray,

No sign of our village, trees only top,

Calm waters or flooded river silent,

Fortunate, at midday, the river intruded,

Embankment gave way to flooding water,

It was a night I was alert for snakes,

Large construction took years,

A week back crashed with flood furry,

For decades people thought safe, secure,

The debacle tore our belief marooned,

A debacle death, horror, imprinted,

Thank God the highway saved us.  

 

@ Bijayananda Mishra

 

 

 

STANCE

 STANCE

 

Story beautiful decades-old remind,

Four brothers, a sister, a family existing,

Parents loving, mother housewife,

Father was a teacher in a city school,

Favorite teacher, evening tuition at home,

No electricity, fan; children squatting,

Kerosene lamp, lantern polished,

Students bring a personal lantern.

Siblings joined one by one at the school,

Attended tuition with other guys,

Circulated stealthily, father unaware,

Best student’s notebooks were prized possession,

Brothers burned oil lamps at midnight,

Dusk to dawn study for high school,

A time we siblings were reading,

Attending college, the cost of study higher,

Hardly father can meet our expenses,

By selling cakes, stitching at home,

Mother supplemented few to father,

Father was doing puja at other homes,

Get some monthly contributions,

Children passed, graduated timely,

Now very well know parents hardship,

Obliged, all were thinking of jobs,

The eldest one got a job in a post office,

Salary helped the youngest sister for study,

She could finish post-graduation,

We brother in few years got jobs,

Bank, railway, electricity, service,

Four brothers got settled in life,

All with modest income clerical,

Happy brothers with monthly salary,

Satisfaction is more than dad’s salary,

Our family is now affluent, established,

Thatched cottage to a brick mansion,

Each of us has a scooter, home TV,

We could keep a domestic help,

She sweeps the floor, washes disks,

Youngest-daughter got a higher job,

Administrative post a jeep servant,

Quarter she got near her office,

On Sunday, we dined together, a must,

Sister comes by her official jeep,

We promised our parents one day,

All siblings decided to be united,

One house in town with parents,

Brother wives will stay at home,

We excused sister to be separate,

She assured us to visit on puja,

Festivals every month puja at home,

We shall worship family idol together,

The stance took shape in reality, true,

Home n childen were never noisier,

It was a big mansion large family,

Stance to stay with parents,

Known in the locality, the clan famous,

Gradual, it was sudden, collapsed,

Brothers, we preferred transfers,

We accused one by one a reason,

Children have gone astray by not studying,

Wives refute the stance as unreasonable,

Small house kids for better care,

We left one by one, parents, alone,

The home stands lonely, stance broken.

 

@ Bijayananda Mishra

 

SUGARDOLL

 

SUGARDOLL

 

 

Nostalgic today memories flood,

Long-walk of life for seven decades,

My life that sprouted obscure,

After India became independent,

Sri Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated,

Four years after independence,

First birthday thousand gathered,

Keonjhar, Anandpur in childhood,

The first school I visited till few years,

My parents shifted to Puri I grew up,

Completed High School College,

Dream to become an engineer, joined,

Graduated successful through a loan,

Engineering life hard work night shift,

Remember a thermal power plant,

Operating four generators at night,

With a dozen engineers on panels,

Silent monsters running with smoke,

Lighting my state in the nighttime,

At day time shift rotates serially,

Checking instrumentation watchful,

Home at Cuttack a hundred miles away,

Wife serving at a college as a lecturer,

Her father was the judge in the high court,

Transferred to capital, at the control room,

Load dispatch a job, attend in shift,

Admitted at IIT, Kharagpur for M Tech,

Completed, post graduate in computer,

Joined at a computer center that served the state,

Election computerized processing,

It was my project for a few sessions,

Successful the projects, I was happy,

Land records computerized for the district,

Successful in a project quite innovative,

State-wide area network digital link,

The project I started with selecting a firm,

It was successful with the design,

Great satisfaction in life is a milestone,

I joined a cooperative bank for the state,

Took challenging project for a job,

Computerizing banking for all branches,

Linking with district banks totally,

The data center, network mammoth job,

I finished my job a firm got tender,

Today it is working successfully,

Hanged my boot, I got retired from life,

Almost a decade retired life at home,

Life was never smooth met accidents,

Fell unconscious at home, injured head,

Survived from near-death fortunate,

At first, there was memory loss,

Lost coordination, troubled family,

Recovery gradual four years passed,

Weak frame stable confined to home,

Life at a crossroads, these days I write,

I write each day a poem about my life,

It is a long formative experience, lovely,

Closely watched emotions of human life,

Correlate my days of struggle, success,

Had love, care, attention of family,

Writes travesty from abject poverty,

From childhood to establishment later,

 My life was found to be a Sugardoll.

 

@ Bijayananda Mishra

NADIR

 

NADIR

 

When I got conscious about my heart,

Treasure trove dark chamber mine,

Never could know, exactly a moment,

It came, stayed for the rest of my life,

The path of life eloquent poem,

I drink the elixir of love to satiate my heart,

Rests for night darkness world disappear,

Ecstatic glow worms I visualize,

Watch astonishingly dream weaver,

Spider nest my desires etch nets radial,

Crisscrosses spider net, heart trapped,

Mind mushrooming lust around me,

Lusts till twilight years unfathomed,

Could not measure the depth of nadir,

It was nightlife span wide pitch dark,

Sweetest honey I was sucking,

Forgot the bright sunshine inviting,

Forgot noisy world attractive enticed,

Forgot wisdom nature is an eternal teacher,

Waiting for freshness, wind, water, skies,

Evaded pleas willfully, drunk heart,

Nadir, I discovered at youth paradise,

Touch of soft skin, thrills spread,

Aroma, body smells fragrant, artificial,

Visible for me, heart rosy with petals,

Wine, tasty cuisine, amorous plays,

Nadir canopied my life youth distant,

In late adulthood, I felt pain immensely,

Writhes fragile limbs, heart cries,

Outcry stunned me, was my heart,

The place was heaven for me, so long,

Heaven is the place of permanent joy,

How come; tortured-heart unwinds,

Spider net fades, a spider is dying,

The canopy of lust covered, life melting,

Acute pains, sick limbs, guess an end,

Now, only now, my sight at the past,

I listen to a whisper deep within,

O soul, you are escaping from nadir,

Dark dungeon that captures you,

Your chains are breaking automatic,

Soul metamorphoses into a butterfly,

The freedom will taste unlike desires,

Rose is a human life with petals,

Inner rows of petals create nadir,

Soul lives like a captive in the body,

Next rows of petals exhibit wisdom,

Elevated soul drinks, not honey, nectar,

Aware of the nadir that captures life,

Nadir, only human frame portrays,

Beauty skin deep magnetic attract,

Iron speck butterfly clings thronging,

Nadir O’ human, your frame is a prism,

You have seen a color spectrum only,

Realize, adhere to the second row of petals,

The freedom you have, O soul, move up,

The next row of petals gives happiness,

Unreal in this world, everything dies,

Surreal is happiness, eternal,

Your beautiful colored wings fade,

Still, you like time in nadir desperate,

Newborn, rose, you got a butterfly trapped.

 

@ Bijayananda Mishra