Saturday 1 August 2020

Udit Bhatia, Poetry 2020 Longlist

Nostradamus' Curse

Boulevard of broken dreams, 

Muted smiles and resounding screams. 

Notwithstanding the dangerous sniff, 

World at the precipice of a cliff.


Brandishing guns and piercing arrows, 

Of deep coffins and high gallows. 

The edifice of mortal bricks, 

Astute tactics and cheap tricks.


Like the hymn which a brahmin sings, 

Like the echo from a Mosque rings, 

Gathering the things which we all took for granted. 

The temporal existence we all chanted. 



Tied to our vicinity 

Competing in the death race. 

Shitting on the land 

While trying to conquer space. 



The stars gaze bewildered, 

Seeing the human guile. 

Human kind it seems, 

Has gone for an exile 



Wealth and power and the hubris 

Reduced to a scanty debris. 

The time still as lion looking at a fawn, 

Dilapidated lives waiting for a new dawn. 



Invisible future and visible unknown, 

Opulence never felt so lone. 

As the world crumbles to the ground, 

Beethoven's sonata plays in the background. 



Red oceans and lives lost, 

Epiphany came at a cost. 

Distances measured and maps plotted, 

Of no use after death allotted. 



Poet with tears in eyes, starts to speak, 

Humans jostling, lifestyles tweak. 

United in misery, together we pray. 

Nature finds a way to separate wheat from hay.

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