Lanka SR Prasad
When that interminable train of a caravan surges forwards or backward,
As you wished, a series of montages struggle past inward and outward;
In the first compartment sits withered faces with age old wrinkles and groans.
The terminal room is empty of life but filled with bizarre skulls and bones.
In the Engine room resides a grave grotesque dark sinister creature,
With a sharp curved blood oozing scythe in his hand and expressionless feature,
To his opposite presides a faceless face of illumination beyond any description,
In that sea of Fire, all the three periods merge into emptiness of cosmic friction!
In that night of nights, in that pitch darkness without moon and stars,
A night that envelopes the mighty forests, seas, mountains and shores,
When that train passes non stationary stations it slows, whistles but never stops,
Fireflies, glow worms buzz in and buzz out of their form with hopes and hops.
As you walk across the compartments of the various ages of uncertain lub dub,
Among the vermin ruins you shall find Cain’s stone, David’s sling, Hercules club,
Primitive men’s obsidian knives, stone axes, boomerang, hatchet, tomahawk
Rama’s bow and arrows, Krishna’s wheel or disc, King Arthur’s Excalibur, Achilles shield
Umpteen swords, daggers, spears, bastilles, catapults, seize towers, battering rams,
Bullets, canons, tanks, fighter planes, missiles, atomic bombs and all that junk,
Scattered amidst the flesh and blood, bones and the treasures of war stink!
In that night of nights, obsequies and funerals are in full spate, the overcrowded platforms
open their hell down stair cases, to fling the rotten bodies crawling with flies and worms,
and the invisible ladders from above wait desperately to find a few qualified souls!
Oh you Visitor! Did you see the images of all the prophets, in that glow worm light?
Hung to the walls of the compartments, and crosses, pleading the people to do right?
Awake! Arise! Act! In that night of nights no train stops at your station!
Your past deeds allot you a ticket to the hell down station or the ladder levitation!
You can be a firefly or glow worm or just a fly or worm, choice is yours!
In the Engine room the face of illumination decides and the scythe creature executes!
Lanka Siva Rama Prasad is an Indian poet, author, and translator.He has written and translated more than 100 published books. Prasad is a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon in Prathima Institute of Medical Sciences and a fellow of Indo-Asian Literature. Here is his website: http://www.anuvaadham.com.
Isuue (1); 2017
