Die-hard
‘If the shower will make the roses bloom,
O, why lament its fall?’
Charlotte Bronte
In the chaos ensuing all around,
These lines of Bronte
Bring a little
Relief!
Indeed, if the darkness makes us see light,
Shouldn't we bear up well?
The world thunders along, in denial of
Promises, rights and liberties
In its reversal of
Language,
Lie threadbare all egalitarian notions!
(Is it hell bent on setting the stage
For Frankenstein?)
Cold-hearted, witty Mephistopheles
Of course, takes centre-stage
Lending voice to impeccably turned-out imps,
In this darkest of satires.
It's for real though,
Blurring edges with
Dystopia
Burning hell fires through cosy living rooms
Songs still playing in the hollows,
Garfunkle in other tongues
Mauled,
Memories in
Lingering echoes...
O world, where to from here?
Where do you want to go?
In worlds within worlds, within worlds
Of a very real but singular earth,
Twisted upturned notions
Now rule.
There's no escaping the shrouds of
Inhuman haze
To obfuscate everything,
O', Earth, I walk with you,
In your hour of shell-shocked
Grief.
Through the pain surely there'll be an awakening?
Smeetha Bhoumik is a poet, artist, editor, founder of the WE Literary Community, founding editor of Yugen Quest Review and author of two poetry collections.
In art her major theme is the Universe Series in oils and mixed media.
Her poems feature in national/ international journals, anthologies including The Polaris Trilogy - Poems for the Moon 2023, TMYS Review- Stories & Poems on Culture & Identity, (Readomania, 2022), Sunflowers – Ukranian Poetry on War, Resistance, Hope, Peace (River Paw Press, 2022), Oxygen – Parables of the Pandemic 2022, Quesadilla & Other Adventures 2019, Muse India 2017, 2018, Life and Legends 2018, Modern English Poetry by Younger Indians– Sahitya Akademi, 2019, among others.
