Midnight Scribblings by Aashik

~~Bhaskaryya~~


Myriad images run past me
As words dangle teasingly betwixt shut-eyes.
I capture them within my fist
And open it only to discover
They long since escaped me unwarrantedly.


I try to hear the night’s stillness
Feel the soothing breeze on my face
I try to admire the distant auburn hills
Take a walk around the dew sprinkled garden…
But all fail to get me going.


I let myself wander aimlessly
Across the ever so erratic wind
And in matter of minutes I visit
Both ends of existence; heaven and hell,
I slay the infernal beast; I dance with the angels
But once again I lose my way somewhere in between.


I put on my uniform and pick up my gun
And shoot down every evil soul prying over my nation.
A sense of tragedy beckons me next
And for the mere fancy of it, I kill myself!
Even that doesn’t end the journey.


Spirituality overcomes me next and I search for my father
First across the vast kingdom of heaven
And then within the entrails of my own soul.
I ponder over the essence of religion
And dwell upon the truth about ‘after-life’…
End up shrugging my shoulders!


I lift my shiny sword and bow to my king,
And of course, the inevitable farewell kiss
For my fair lady-love. (And now should she be the princess?)
I gallop away towards the battle ground
But where the blazing stallion leads me, even I don’t know!


Fast forwarded an aeon, I look at the society surrounding me
With optimism in one eye and cynicism in the other.
I hear the politician’s promises and question his beliefs;
‘Hypocritical democracy’ or ‘democratic hypocrisy’?
I feel the pain of every impoverished and hungered soul
But fail to express it to my liking.


Ultimately I end up digging myself again
In the pages of an old anthology.
I browse through Emily; the metaphors escape me.
Wordsworth follows but I turn over; far too dandy
Shakespeare; but iambs scare me…perhaps sometime else!




I close the book and go off to sleep
Aware that clichés defeated me again!