Evening Thoughts | L K Sharma

by L K Sharma

They said this was HIS way

of saving HIS Planet!

By killing HIS people?

 

It looked promising in

the bright morning.

The window encased

clear green and sky blue.

 

The scene unclouded

by human smoke.

Bird songs, clear and

distinct, unmixed

by human noise.

Roads unsullied by

dirty human feet.

Stillness, undisturbed

by human movement.

 

Dance of Death stopped.

The world rid of its

domineering species

and its ceaseless chatter

and endless clutter.

 

Not a soul, ugly or

beautiful, in sight.

No humans, drunk

or steady, walk

upon the earth.

No door is open.

No noise is heard.

 

The koel sings

from a tree top.

Little birds conduct

their orchestra.

 

A peacock family

majestically crosses

a lonely road. A deer

has left its habitat and

taken to the road.

 

The evening falls.

There is no light.

No longer bright.

Turned dismal,

depressing and

menacingly quiet.

 

For a little while,

we do enjoy silence.

Tuned to noise, we

cannot bear silence

for too long.

 

For a change, we love

a remote hilly spot

that enables us to

escape the noisy city.

But soon we crave

to run away from

there and return to

the familiar Hell.

Distance unbearable.

Isolation becomes

a term in jail.

 

Never satisfied,

never fulfilled.

Ever fearful.

 

The same this evening.

Where have all humans

gone? Will they return

or have gone forever?

 

Birds, birds, birds!

Will they take over

the world? Like

the bees in the

Hitchcock film.

 

What do I do?

To wait or not

to wait. To come

alive in the

familiar Hell.

 

The evening should go.

Let the sankranti kal,

in-betweenness end.

Let the night come.

Let darkness envelope

me, envelope all.

We are nothing in

the light. We shall

be nothing in

darkness. Stillness

is too much with me.

Let dogs come out to

roam and howl on

the road.

 

Shatter the unnerving

silence, end my

unending isolation.

 

I should have dinner,

wash my hands twice,

make a call, reach out

for the record player

to play the Ode to Joy.

 

That will get me ready to

meet my dreamy self and

to lie awake in the night.