|
So, I meet strangers in the street
they look at me and I look at them a 'how are you?' lurking in our eyes we want to say the same things the commonality of disaster envelops our fragile beings it rains, it stops, it rains again we move behind closed doors our hearts navigating secret stories we live like strangers finding meaning in the destiny of uncertainty the cold clock looks on, unimpressed its arms stretched forever into eternity the longer I stand, the smaller I get fading into oblivious indignity and like some old song that comes to mind I ask myself 'how are you?' the silence is deafening How am I? How should I be? I am not sure if I have ever been able to answer that question convincingly. © Jaspreet Mann, How are you? (2020)  Never before have I felt this kind of temporariness and uncertainty transcend my existence. This poem, that I wrote long ago came to my mind during this time.
*click on the pic to hear the poem. Happy to share some poems that I wrote during this lockdown. Kindle edition available here:  Today practice what you preach. Don't talk about the boredom of work from home. Don't talk about your difficulties. Think about people who are nudged into margins and documented in statistics. Pay your maid. Pay all those people who worked for you. Pay them now because a few rupees will save a life, a family. When you voice all those challenges about working from home, remember those people who don't have a voice!
Yes, that's how you look
you look at clouds and not see the rain you look at life and not see the pain. -Jaspreet Mann For a long time they fished in the pockets of their well worn jeans
For a slice of the moon lost during childhood For the drop of rain that went waste For the twittering of birds that was silenced long ago For a long time they stood on the stairs staring into space, spaced out like forgotten constellations talking to a sky that had never heard their names For a long time, they were there looking at nowhere For a long time, they were there in the heart of everywhere. © Jaspreet Mann |
Archives
June 2020
AuthorJaspreet Mann Archives
June 2020
Categories
|
RSS Feed
