Reality
I believe in God, I think in reality,
I believe in the soul, the eternal life of a human being,
Then why do we pretend?
Knowing the ultimate end of life,
Is it not an illusion?
That we move in a restless motion?
I can feel the existence of God,
I can understand the language of the soul,
I can hear my intuition saying
The repulsive truth of human beings.
Rajyashree Borah,
Dibrugarh
Faith
On that night of winter,
As I was walking down the empty streets,
Where the aroma of the enticing night-flowering jasmine spread around,
I saw him,
His misty eyes full of tears twinkling,
And his body shivering in the cold,
Spending his sleepless, grievous nights in some way.
Everybody was lost in deep slumber,
Even the trees was spreading silence all around,
But not him.
He was fervently waiting for the Spring to come,
In a hope to feel the soft breeze caressing his face,
And to feel the sound of vernal showers,
And, in a hope to sleep like a log,
Listening to the trees’ humming lullabies,
On a bed of tulip flowers.
Akash Jyoti Pegu,
Dhemaji, Assam
New India
Skyrocketing inflation,
Dipping economy,
Rising poverty,
Dying farmers,
Impractical pedagogy,
Protesting students,
Brutal rapes,
Vulnerable femininity,
Lifestaking addictions,
Devastated youths,
Deceptive politicians,
Regressing nation.
Dr Gitartha Talukdar,
Via e-mail.
Arrhythmic
(In remembrance of my late wife)
My morning was
Two cups of tea,
One for her, one for me,
With sugar in one, another sugar-free.
My morning is
Only one cup of tea,
It’s now just for me,
I remained ‘I’ and no more ‘we’.
Srikumar Datta,
Guwahati
Existence
When I feel I don’t exist,
Thoughts become too complicated.
The world seems to be the mastermind,
Where I end up in a battlefield.
I fight for my existence,
When hope dims in the midst of darkness.
Everything is determined in just one move.
Confused, isolated, helpless, and grieving,
I get stuck within myself!
Like a puzzle game, life becomes difficult to solve,
Just keep on driving without a definite end!
When I feel I don’t exist.
Priya Chakraborty,
Dibrugarh
