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   COVID-19   Poems

By  Ram Krishna Singh, India

            1.  

Punitive

corona virus–

lépreuse

some say it’s invasion

the barbarian without

 

quarantined

I clear my throat

behind the face mask

breathe in unknown viruses

suffer new repressions

 

now lockdown

cut off life:

castration

Hugo said monasticism

resisting death

 

 

            1. NAW RUZ IN LOCKDOWN

 

The sun and cool breeze

betray no virus:

 

the house arrest sickens

the fear kills the spring

 

this Naw Ruz alters

the meaning of life

 

buried in years that gibe

political follies

 

fanatic ambitions

and culture of suicide

 

they call evolution

progress, peace, unity

 

ruining harmony

in nature’s home fuel

 

no re-creation

but perpetual death

 

 

            1. NEW GODS

 

Meditation–

future uncertainties

beyond crisis

 

new strains, new virus

villains of the new order

peeking from windows

 

create new mantras

for life to continue

envision no gods

 

 

            1. BEFORE THE MIRROR

 

Stand naked

before the mirror

see changes

from top to toe

a tragic tale:

 

loosened muscles

stretch marks on the knees

vericose veins

and a long journey

from eyes to anus

 

itching, bleeding

swelling, aching and

degenerating

with fears in restroom

bedroom, car, airplane

 

the virus haunts

from tummy to temple

issues have me

coming and going

yoga or no yoga

 

it’s not ageing

but undying sensations

feelings I peel

to stay synced with energies

that play not with one but two

 

to define love

rescue the self and other

make room for truth

far from the fetishes

in the maze of mad pursuits

 

 

            1. UNLOCKDOWN-I

 

The deity may hear

or not hear the loud praise

and silent sighs

the temple dust is not free

from the virus in the air

 

devotees carry

without God’s wish suffer

sins not committed:

quarantined in hospital

alone for fourteen days

 

 

 

            1. UNLOCKDOWN-II

 

Women and children

crossing the flooded huts

with aluminum

cooking pots, plastic cans

and remains of provisions

seek shelter on trees

none know when these too will

collapse and drift down the stream

like the living space

with men in underwear

 

 

            1. SIX TANKA

 

in the air

I expected romance–

corona:

avoid her kiss

and breathing too

 

***

 

ridicule

their exploring gaze

veiled women

with colors, patterns

and seismic movement

 

***

 

covid-19

reading the astral transit

ceaseless lockdown

over sanitized hands

playing “Stairways to Heaven”

 

***

 

voiceless friends

in aloneness of the room

unread books

human’s unseen plenum

my sympathetic nerves

 

***

 

the rivers

decayed into sewers

revive in lockdown:

no plastic bottles, no bags

and fishes swim near the banks

 

***

my vests couldn’t dry

on the clothesline today

the rain’s music

turns different from the sun’s

I hear the hum in my hair

 

–Ram Krishna Singh

 

 

Compiled/Published by LeRoy Chatfield
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