Refractions

The haunting memories of a frenzied nation,

The frequent attacks with peace so scarce,
The sadness that only comes
When that is past and what's next
Is worse than worst can be.

A step into unfamiliar land,
A stride on unchartered territory,
A leap over hurdles scattered,
And the lessons meant to be learnt.

An eventful journey through Hell,
Only to know what it is
To be in Heaven,
With good at your side,
Drenched in bliss
And the mind set free to fly.

A broken road on which my life wanders,
A tingling difference, not diffidence,
A surrender so complete, it distorts
The very air around me.

Nearing the border,
With war behind,
And a battle ahead,
I seek a miracle that's in my control.
I write my story as I wish it to go,
Just as the light into the night,
Just as the million stars that fade at dawn,
Not a bang, not a sudden demise,
It shall be a fading, with a different end.

Looking back at the path I've tread,
With a tinge of guilt, a twinge of sadness,
The things I did, the things I could've but didn't,
Flashing on a faraway mirror,
A reflection of those very days,
Reminding me of something else.

I know what it means,
And carry on under the stars.

The End Is Near

The smoking funnels, turned upside – down;
The blocks moving faster than ought to.
Time warming up – a rehearsal
To end a slow demise.

The little that little things did
To return in kind the deed
Toward an ungrieving sentience
Spun the cogs that chugged End on.

Surprise and shock born
Just as seeds stayed asleep.
Refuse that was cycled, gullet through gullet,
And ended just as before.

Greed: too hard to contain,
The desire to live off the dead.
Sympathy for other things,
Long after came their end.

The touch of poison on the lips –
Momentary pain, and an endless addiction.
A high of insensibilities,
With the generous relapse.

Prophets whispering the end
Of you and all your kind.
Fallen in the eye of minions,

You die, to fulfill a tyrant’s curse.