The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have many Facebook profiles to peep,
And so many emails all in a heap,
Science has taken such a gigantic leap,
For its rewards I have to stay up 24X7 to reap,
I also have so many silly little promises to keep,
(Sleep? My alarm clock keeps going beep beep,
And then I just feel like going weep weep…)
And I have miles of virtual words to key in before I sleep…
And miles to go (in circles I think) before I sleep.

With due apologies to Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

This Spoof by Sunil Rajguru

No matter what you do,
The world moves on at its pace,
Break your hand or tear your heart,
Perish your body or sell the soul,
The world moves on the way it wants.
Split the atom or synthesize a gene,
Discover the cell or the basis of life,
Travel the speed of sound,
or its multiples,
The world moves on as it will,
with the same ratio of
Joy and sorrow,
The same degree, scope, quantity and
quality of,
human suffering.
For a stone, spear, arrow or mace,
sword, dagger, knife or gun,
grenade, bomb or missile,
spills the same red blood,
and takes the same innocent life,
As does the atom.
Yesterday,
a thousand spears were raised
to kill a thousand lives.
Today,
a nuclear bomb is enough
thousand-fold.
But the thoughts behind it
and the intentions
are the same.
No matter what you do it’s all the same.
Cure a deadly disease
and a deadlier arrives in its place.
Kill the killer
and you’re branded one.
Topple the top
and you’ll be toppled in time.
Rule the country or the world.
Nothing changes,
it’s all the same,
no matter what you do.
Spend a lifetime in a penance.
God won’t come to Earth.
Create a religion of love today,
tomorrow it’ll be one of hate.
A saviour will come and save the world.
And soon it’ll be in need of saving again.

(This poem appeared in The Asian Age on March 17, 1996)

The daily routine. The daily rut.
We all do the same things
again and again
and again
Each day is a carbon copy of the previous day.
The same mornings
the same work
the same evenings and the same nights
We live in a world of action replays
Life is a Xerox machine
photocopying a single page
endlessly
Each copy stands
for each day
we represent
the machines we create

© Sunil Rajguru

Did you have to treat my heart
like a punching bag?
You used me like a handkerchief
to wipe your sweat
a handy bag
to carry your things
a vehicle to transport you
to your destination
I thought you loved me
but you just needed me
A need is satisfied and forgotten
unlike love… which goes beyond
Our relationship was like
the last rays of the setting sun
The sun sets only to rise again
but our paths shall never cross again

© Sunil Rajguru

My love for you is so strong
that I would hold you in my arms
and
crush you
and
kill you.
and love would do the same to me.
For in this world,
Everything perishes,
save death
our love can live only through it

© Sunil Rajguru

It’s always today
Tomorrow and yesterday are two worlds
which are equally far away
only the directions differ
or perhaps they meet at the same place
As the beginning of time and the end of it are two times
which are equally far away
only the directions differ
and perhaps they too meet at the same place

© Sunil Rajguru

The traditional belief of reincarnation
A life once, twice, thrice and many more times
A life full of suffering, anguish, despair and agony
Dreams and nightmares, hopes
The growth of a life, drop by drop
And effort of years and of generations
Worldly success, shorlived joy
Spiritual abyss, lingering sadness…
A lone life observing mankind
Beastkind?
Womankind squashed, helplessness butchered
A law of the might
God sold, a religion of hatred
And in the end, its back to dust
The futility of it all
The destruction of all things created
Surely the soul is too wise
to change more than one suffering body

© Sunil Rajguru