Psalm
Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca

Today I want to write a Psalm
Not strict about the content or form

David cried out to the Lord
And praised Him for he was his God
He experienced much happiness and suffered much pain
Praising God sure kept him sane

This world of ours is full of sorrow
So much uncertainty about the morrow

Join me in dance and song
In unity embrace, and let’s be strong
Praying and on waiting for better days
Meanwhile to Hope our glasses raise.

Copyright Kavita 2020

Don’t You Wish

Don’t you wish
You had hugged them more,
Embraced them once more,
Loved more , cared some more,
Conversed more , listened more.
Visited them more often,
Clasped feeble hands more often
Dined together more often ,
Walked together more often
Spent time together more,
Rubbed each other’s back more often
Planted kisses on loved one’s cheeks
And whispered more often,
“I love you deep.”

Flipped pages of books together
Cuddled with loved ones more ,
Sorted out medicines for the old
And placed them on their tongues
Held glasses of water for trembling ones
Showered your endearments more often,
Applied emollient on cut skins,
Of those who stood with you when hope ran thin.
Don’t you wish
You had blurted out more often,
Your heart’s feelings profound ,
Of how grateful you feel,
Towards each and everyone around,
Blessing you with love abound.
For even a fraction of this if you did achieve,
You wouldn’t be hurting so much
With regret and grief.

Now the times have changed for a while
But you can still dial
And whisper, you love them all the more.
Don’t you wish normalcy soon returns
And with all the wisdom learned,
You do all that you should have done ,
But left them undone.
A smile, a hug, a caress , a cuddle,
A pat, a whisper, a gentle touch,
And last but not much,
A thankful bow to the one and the only ,
Who blessed you with so much.

Seeing all this grim
and pounding deaths,
I tossed handful of earth
don’t know where –
and walked away silently, direction-less
Folding my hands
a deep prayer inside

sun setting in a fiery sky
across where the eagle fly
as white clouds no longer high

…….sunset shall await
………..rising suns destined fate

when the day had come and done
silently the ripples and waves have gone
as horizon kept a distance with the glooming sun

………sunset shall sleep
………….rising sun slumbered deep

slowly the sky meets the sea without an end
far beyond where nothing ever transcend
and everything in darkness shall blend

……….sunset stays a haven
…………..rising sun comes to awaken

let the sun, set as it will always rise
waves be rushing yet not suffice
the sky brightly stays and lies

IN ACRYLIC PAINTING BY SUZETTE PORTES SAN JOSE

How will you keep
A greater eye on me
Because
The moment
You opted for my lookout;
Your invisibility took
A beaten look around me –
I was found nowhere
But, behind your retina
Near the blind spot
A hindrance
to all your visible flexes

A scaly dinosaur

It stalked through the land

Breaking down walls

It paced the globe

Spreading dread in its wake.

People huddled inside

Setting work stations at home.

Your own hands became

A traitor to your well being

And trust became a breach.

Wash your hands inside out

Off all yesteryear sins.

The masks you wear

To protect inner secrets

Fall off, withered pale.

Distancing you and me

From its spiky touch

Not contaminated, an island unto

One’s own self – a no man’s land

Is fast looming….

 The poem is based on an 87-year-old CoVID-19 patient who wished to see the last sunset of Wuhan.

An 87-year-old man
with ample virtue
and warmth;
Spending his life
In a far-flung city of
China, to wit, Wuhan.

Now, known as,
dreary city of China,
So vast a fiasco,
the coronavirus bout
pruned the wings of
hope.

One rugged riot and with
shock of it,
With guarding face masks,
they coated their faces,
They, walking down
the sick lanes of City
Wuhan,

Nagging around nature,
Reckoning around tragedy
Remarking all bodies perishing;
For works, all halted
All tales more sweetly
got scorched.

The face of nature
With no more mercy,
All withered alike, but
a grim tone lies in the
same rosy muse,

Here the same
local resident old man
got infected;
Family bothering,
Relatives worrying,
Friends moving
toward,

However, the virus
nuzzled him barely
from some incognito
spot ;

Yet the uncertainty buckled
them all;
The elderly man hospitalized
for almost a month,
Thereon his eyes with
a gleaming glow, and
salty tears when began to
flow,

He sighed and yearned
to regard his last wish
duly;
Reflected recent jewels
and endorsed the day
by beholding the most
gratifying sensation
of the Last sunset in the
city Wuhan,

And outside the
hospital, the colors
of riping
mellowed his each
part that then began
to live again on the
fresh hope.

Hadn’t society

Distanced itself already?

From the cries for help

From the neighbor at 3am

Hadn’t we washed of?

All responsibility

For harvests

Of rot

We kept the mandatory 6ft

From reports

Of daily crimes

Of hate

Of stratum

And skin

That looked different

Of enemy state

Infested with familiar sameness

And yet…

Along came a virus

Making it official

Man for only

One man

Fed on ‘Me Love’

Social distancing

Just a hashtag

We were already

Flawed souls

In self-owned apartments

Rented bodies

A society

Looking at universe

With an outsider’s gaze

~ Vandana

Officially , we are cool , collected , benevolent and rational
Unofficially , and in effect , almost all are “ anti – national “

No I don’t use the term as lightly as some others have done
I mean all human beings , really , also as in “ all Indians are one “

The uneducated ignorant remote villagers aside
What are the educated Urbans doing , woe betide !

If even the threat of a global pandemic cannot restrain us
If even an untreatable killer virus can’t train us

To act in a quiet disciplined mature and rational fashion
If still we give primacy to superstition and passion

If prejudice disunity selfishness hatred guide us
If we allow a false sense of entitlement to ride us

Then sorry to say this but we deserve all that is on its way
If reason will not have its way , Corona will have its way

Doctors and drugs may save some folk but mostly it’s our duty
Fate puts it all in our own hands , and really that’s the beauty

If all think of each other, and if each one thinks for all
And acts that way , Covid 19 cannot hold us in thrall

If each thinks only for himself , family and clan
Covid 19 will catch those folks whatever be their plan

“ He prayeth best who loveth best all things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all.”

Do your best for all other beings and you too shall find grace
This test is well -devised to show what makes the human race

If I’m prepared to suffer and lay down my life for all
Then surely I shall know God’s Grace even though to Death I fall

If I am selfish , if among people I discriminate
Then in this world and in the next I know I’ve sealed my Fate

If die we must ( and all must die ) if not today , tomorrow
Let’s use with gentleness and grace the Time we from Death borrow

Dogs are better than us in this our dog eat dog cruelness
Dear Heaven teach us kindness and save us from unkindness

It all depends on us Dear Friends what we are prepared to give
What if I live but kindness dies ? Let me die , kindness live

( Amita Sarjit Singh Ahluwalia )