FEARFUL

 

FEARFUL

 

Uncle invites us to offer a delicious meal,

Favorite dishes Aunty prepares well,

We siblings crowd him to greet him often,

Undoubted grab chocolate gifts a lot,

His children are our closest friends, love,

Uncle was our neighbor, remembered well,

How soon time passed days golden,

The innocent heart pleasure and fun,

Houses adjacent, we mingle frequently,

The higher study, we left our home a future,

Future, we children made, educated,

Destiny dragged us apart far-flung,

Hardly we could meet each other,

Festive occasions, occasional visits,

Visit Uncle and Aunty positively,

The reminiscence gets alive to tear,

We hug our uncle and talk a lot about our lives,

Gossip encircled him, served mixtures,

Intense discussion queries his replies,

Uncle was educated, highly talented,

Had a flourishing business, a bookshop,

Voracious a reader knew the best novels,

Knowledgeable about the globe,

His advice was golden and helped all,

We recount our stories of we benefited,

That was summer heat father was sick,

I had been to visit home to help my dad,

Stayed for a few weeks and treated him,

Gradual and slowly, he was recovering,

Heard uncle is in hospital critical,

Lost his consciousness shifted soon,

Doctors were attending watchful,

Warned for every hour, important,

His survival depends on these hours,

His children have returned home,

Aunty was desperate and worried a lot,

My uncle survived, my father is well,

It has been a month forced me on leave,

The diagnosis of my father and uncle,

Alone sitting in the bedroom reading,

Socked to see the cause ailment of both,

A similar cause for sickness uncle critical,

His heart found to be troubling him,

Fearing a heart attack doctor warned,

My father had kidney trouble cured,

His liver is not now normal in medicine,

Warning for both I got astonished,

Strong warning not to touch alcohol,

Individual doctor for Dad and Uncle,

Both advised me drinks to be stopped,

Advised Uncle, I kept my distance from wine,

I feared Dad never dared to question,

A few investigations I discovered soon,

There is a wine parlor nearer checked,

Dad and uncle's close friends and visiting,

For decades and regular customers,

Checked the log register my fingers trembled,

Came to know now realize a catastrophe,

It stroked both decent retired citizens,

Know could have faced paralysis or death,

Thanked Lord, both survived fate,

Chilled my spine how to control them,

Not children but senior lives respected,

Aunty and Mom took responsibility,

Fearful from that day to wine a monster.    

 

Pen: Bijayananda Mishra

Title of Poem: Fearful

Themes: Fearful of wine possibly kill

Written: 19th July 2023, Cuttack

@ Copywrite

 

BENEFIT

 

BENEFIT

 

Have ever a spirit faced hunger,

Begged for a morsel of food, staring,

The pain, severe than death etched,

Remind the time scar of the past,

Tears dried long ago, lips parched,

Unruffled matted hair little oily,

The dirty cloth torn at places sadly,

Shame for a life left brutally ago,

Neither faced humiliation nor insult,

His shrunken eyes look at the bystander,

Unmindful of the reaction, extended hand,

Empty palms a few coins he received,

Little reacted, aimlessly focused,

Whom he is calling talking interrupted,

Scolding someone nowhere seen,

Sleeping on the road divider cemented,

Merciless sun blistered his skin,

Failed to recognize the heat seats,

Knew well that people can provide some,

Maybe bread, leftover plates of food,

Some money, mercifully some water,

Rain has arrived pouring rain,

Does not know he may catch a cold,

Soaked to the bone, begging for a sight,

The traffic was thick, passing fast,

Nobody looked at him, squatted,

In the middle of the road, vehicles too,

Speeding past him blaring horn,

Crossing near him less bothered,

Civilization knows the value of time,

Opportunity is missed and never seen in life,

That moment fetched huge benefits,

Mountain of cash gold lot of assets,

Secured life wealth guarantees well,

Magnetic prosperity status face crowd,

They plead for help, beg mercy, obey,

Surrender to whims least bother to act,

Can loot, cheat, make blunders happily,

Wanted favor from the powerful, kneeled,

Give him the order to perform but help,

His son for a job, his wife treated, continues,

He wants a house, acres of land, a shop,

Endless requests touching feet quickly,

Get a bundle of cash promises, of course,

Vanish like thin air all of sudden,

Lock stock and barrel plundered socked,

Touch the feet acquired instantly,

None can challenge men shadowy,

Vanish from visibility mysteriously,

Fear grips lost everything outright,

The law of the land out of reach mockery,

A family of decent having home children,

He once objected to grabbing,

Knocked the door of the court bitterly,

Protested against unseen forces angrily,

He survived lost his family sadly,

The public reacted, consoled him, forgot,

He is changed to an unknown face in the street,

A beggar in the street walking madly,

He knew, lost his home, and family instantly,

Never harmed anyone in life innocent,

Scolding someone looking up angrily,

Passerby ridicule interpret gimmickries,

Everything I know about his neighbor,

Hardly can dare to touch him to help,

Found him senseless on the road,

Called a shelter home, paid dues,

The story didn't end recovered,

Got benefits for those below the poverty line.

 

Pen: Bijayananda Mishra

Title of Poem: Benefit

Themes: Benefit is a misnomer 

Written: 18th July 2023, Cuttack

@ Copywrite

 

 

 

 

 

QUIETUDE

 

QUIETUDE

 

Revolted enough in life addicted,

Drank to the brim modernity read,

Collected books immersed studied,

Awestruck rustic life disbelieved too,

Is it that cities remain awake night long,

Tall towers kissing the sky illuminated,

Hundreds of floors of people work at night,

Earn wealth in single life, a village fail,

Jaws open lost between lines dreamed,

Illiterate class three quit school turn laborer,

Worked in the field cultivation harvest,

Carried bags of paddy to mills paid up,

A few clothes, a clay hut, twice rice cooked,

Illness withered with fever and cold,

Sleep with cloth covered without food,

A few days after the fever remission,

Curious moved to a nearby city for work,

Got a job at a construction site day long,

Payment is enough for two meals a day,

A tin shed few clothes water bucket,

Watch during night streets lighted,

Traffic busy occasionally get empty,

The high-rise buildings illuminated,

Windows lighted, twinkled from a distance,

The skyline is an unreal different world,

Daytime found people like machines,

Scantly look at strangers talk little,

Move quickly, catch the bus, train, vanish,

The rush at late evening matching,

Unfriendly keep distance from laborers,

Interaction, harsh, blunt, and short,

Repulsive attitude acquired fear them,

Rich people look at our dress shrink,

Questioned once a young person,

He looked at me surprised and laughed,

Bewildered at his answer, unfit illiterate,

What a fool you seek friends in the city,

Educate yourself to get a job by car home,

Put on a polished, costly dress, talk nicely,

Get on with your life entangled with pal,

They gossip, share rumors, chat a lot,

Mind your pocket get empty quickly,

Learn your mistake, keep aloofness,

Wiser by now, multiply money fast,

This is a great city to sing for men,

Less they remember you, laborers,

Required to build buildings road,

Push out of the city crowd in a slum,

Watch how the city repents crowds,

Sick, hungry, cheats migrating,

Listening to him attentively to my language,

Thinks about the booked read earnestly,

The fifth class I read in the village can read,

Felt proud to read a book tagged illiterate,

Here children study at university,

Unheard in village education in detail,

That was a sock of my life back home,

Bewitchingly beautiful nature,

The fool moon, grain field watchman,

Alone in the field paddy, has ripened,

Yellow paddy plants swaying to and fro,

Moonlight under the grain field golden,

Distant is a village I stay awake bewildered,

The city was my life as a laborer, and here,

The peace, calmness, happy beatitude,

Found, belongs to the rapturous quietude. 

 

Pen: Bijayananda Mishra

Title of Poem: Quietude

Themes: A rustic found belongs to nature

Written: 17th July 2023, Cuttack

@ Copywrite.

 

 

UMBRELLA

 

UMBRELLA

 

The old home still allures attracts,

The pull of impulsive existential,

Alive embryonic childhood life,

Nostalgic scenes serenity neatly,

Far from mundane city life bristles,

Milling crowds, noisy, busy traffic,

The quiet small village cluster of huts,

Our home is the only brick mansion,

Grandfather was landlord tall,

Respected peasant community,

Shared annual output totally rent,

Employed by Grandpa paid grains,

An ample amount of corn oil clothes,

Few silver coins every year, mercy,

Treated the villagers as living God,

Adored his kind heart obeyed,

The village is surrounded by green,

Hills at one side opposite a river,

Peaceful, and a school exciting,

Father was the teacher only educated,

No coaching class school fee was free,

Landlord, Grandpa maintained,

The obscure village is a paradise existed,

Happiness I remember people were poor,

Uncomplaining illiterate, still happy,

Unaware of modern gadgets lucky,

Grandpa, his image of a tall man, strong,

An umbrella, his shoe, a small bag,

I knew a box with beetles chew nuts,

A torchlight toothpicks case,

From far a black umbrella distinct,

In sunlight, unfailing he prefers,

At night umbrella accompanied,

In case there will be rain or not,

His habits carry an umbrella to town,

Never lost in his life his umbrella, we joked,

His bedroom, still intact for a century,

An iron almirah umbrella hanging,

His bed still maintained fresh,

The floor is cleaned every day by Dad,

Picture frame of Grandpa Grandma,

Fixed on the wall garlanded nicely,

Frequent visit umbrella attracts,

Once Dad caught stood behind,

You look at this umbrella, fascinated,

He won hundreds of acres of land,

The whole peasant community is landless,

He was the umbrella for peasant families,

Distribute most of the rice corns money,

Educated their children free of cost,

These people claimed his land and got,

Stopped paying respect, quarreled,

His land lordship was snatched,

But this umbrella symbolizes a time,

The glorious period of our root family,

Like an umbrella stayed above us.

Umbrella fought against time stays,

But our royal past is lost with time!

 

Pen: Bijayananda Mishra

Title of Poem: Umbrella

Themes: Lost royalty umbrella won over time

Written: 16th July 2023, Cuttack

@ Copywrite