The Epidemic

Down the streets, cold and grey,
Death rides with a cold heart.
No matter where she puts her foot,
Hope and Joy, all depart.

She wipes away happy smiles,
Making place for a frown.
She pluks every strand of Life,
and tucks them in her crown.

She wraps away in her dark cloak,
some summer days, never lived...
She rattles down little country lanes,
leaving all sad and agrieved.

But then Life, in his chariot bright,
With Hope and Joy comes shining.
The Streets shine with a new vigour,
not the cloud, but the silver lining...
~Maithili Desai

For You I Cried....

I watch helplessly, as the sun goes down
just like I watched you go.
But the sun I know, will come again,
Of you, I never know.

It was you I loved and trusted in,
it was you I ever thought of.
But it was you who left me stranded,
and it was me you made a joke of.

Oh! the hours I spent in loving you,
the double I spend in tears.
All the dreams and hopes I ever had,
now haunt me as my fears.

I know of love, for it lives in me.
but you will never know.
You'll never feel that joy in you,
it will never make you glow.

For love is meant for gentle souls,
not for the likes of you,
who trample over loving hearts,
and bruise them black and blue.

Of me, you need not worry,
for life is kind and just.
She helped me build myself again,
with bricks of faith and trust.

I now live contentedly,
a life that is truly fun.
You, I know, will have a nasty end.
For me, life's just begun!

I know I will live and love again,
far better than i did before.
For you, I hope, someone will come,
And leave you bleeding and sore!!
~Maithili Desai

Broken....

The rough pillow is the only one who heeds my tears.
All the smiles that had rained on me,
today turn back and lash at me as frowns
Anger and Pain, with their jagged knives
jab at my sides,
till the wounds of yester years
bleed afresh,
the earth the only cotton for them.
Hope and Faith have dropped from me,
like autumn leaves from a tree,
leaving me bare,
naked..
Mellow sunshine dodges away from me.
The scented breeze keeps its distance.
Joy, who had once danced with me
today looks back sullenly.
The dead soles of my feet lie leaden,
too dead to moan in pain.
like my soul that lies lifelessly,
somewhere.
My lips have been sewn with fine threads’
and they ask me why I don’t answer.
Frozen I lay, with a frozen world within
waiting for the impossible warmth.
But cold hands hold me,
in a lovelessly passionate grasp.
Like a hungry boarhound, tied by a leash,
Misfortune growls at me, threateningly,
eager to sink its daggers in my flesh
My broken dreams lie in a shimmering heap,
too far away for me to see.
Were they ever there?
My flight lays at my feet,
Her wings clipped,
Did she ever soar?
Love, having danced her illusion
has now gone ahead for another prey.
I had once faced the world arms wide open
to take on anything it gave.
But today, I wail noiselessly,
at the grave of My Little World,
Unconsoled,
Unheard,
Unloved,
Unknown….