Charcoal

I am no diamond or gold

I am a frame of coal

my heart is cherry red

when heated in fire,

my soul beats unmusical

but love reigns all over me.

 

No one touches me for fear

lest he- she should be black

none sees my pure heart

none perceives its crimson glow,

so be it I say and burn with a smile.

 

Oh dear they do not know

it’s me who burn to turn into Diamond

poor fellows do not wait and watch

my fireborn transformation.

People lay heap of roses for me

after I am out of the fire cell,

they adorn me with pride and prestige

Kings, Emperors, lovers present me

as Love to their loved ones

in million ways and billion moods.

 

So be it I say, and I am ready

again to go into the fire cell.

Sabita Sahu

 

Green Shoots At The Horizon

My pen is chocked by the pandemic

under self quarantine she lies numb

making my being lame and dumb,

but my mind is awake and alert

to the rise and fall of the kings and crowns

long lines of knights and clowns

legions of honour and ignominy

I am the receptor of history

the preceptor of mad reveries.

 

I have seen and felt the gloom

of mighty men rolling in blood

inviting doom by bravery and ego,

floods of tears I have swum

and walked on the debris of civilization

counting the great follies of mankind .

 

Wounds oozing pus grieved me,

men and women howling in pain

teeth grinding revenge have pierced

my soul billion times changed hue

from green to red and pale yellow

yet I am here alone and hurt,

should I give up in despair

shaming my Maker forever?

 

No I will rise and collect the bones

whisper life into them with my burning love

bring glow to their faces, wipe tears

pour in them the sauce of life

and shout with all my life force.

Arise O fallen and vanquished

life is not a grave's mold.

breathe and infuse the vital grace

into the retro the listless and start

fighting to beat the end again

make all ends your new beginning.

 

   

My Secret

 My Secrets

 

The night eavesdrops at my window

the stars with greedy eyes 

wink there in the firmament

spying for my secrets!

My life is open like the wind

I touch every pore

my story is bright and blind:

I hum in silence

shout at nothing

I romance with the fallen flowers

every morning at sweaty dawn.

 

Yes, I have a secret

I have locked it

in the heart of darkness

and thrown the key at the sun

don't ask what letters

words and sentences are under seal

my life is my secret

as the lily hides in the moonlight

as the new moon night

hides the moon to savour it.

 

My secret is my history

historians can never record,

for the truth of my life

is simple mortality

with a beginning, middle and end

sealed for ever to be unsealed

at every new birth.