Slavery and Escape

For every beat of the drum, in steady rhythm

A whip cracks, chains tauten; humans, chains themselves

A beat, and an axe digs into the trunk, a scarred willow

Sweat, blood, pain, cry, pleas and prayers- silent and unheard; tears unseen

A membrane is torn, yet the drumbeats

The slogging ’machines’ are worn, yet the whips

One stroke of the axe, the last straw

The cut too deep, can bear no more; collapse, fall.

But the land is same, destined to be enslaved

The scattered seeds, a new generation is born

The children rise, doomed with the same ill fate,

The axe whips on.

 

The membrane is torn, but now no drum beats,

For they pounce and render their master slave, all man and beast

But abused in body, mind and soul, they succumb to fatigue,

It takes its time, but life comes around in its own way.

Slaves now remain no more, at least in man and beast,

But the axe, the tree, no metaphor; Nature too abused,

Tortured and enslaved by the same master, 

Its atrocities haven't ceased.

Slaves remain no more, but the ‘lost master’ still exists,

It crawls beneath and finds its last few moments of comfort bestowed by the shadow of the tree,

The slave-driver sought compassion from the same Nature it exploited so brutally,

And then, eternal peace.

Revenge, sought man, and finds for itself Death, its true home,

After its ‘Master-Slave’ sojourn;

Love, sought the tree, and it lives on

Bearing the scars for all to see and learn.

A SONG

GONE BY

Mama said, “Do it now,

‘Cause time ain't waiting for none,

Your life’s there before you,

And you've only just begun.

A moment’s slip’s all it takes

And you fall like a pack of cards.”

Her words fell on deaf ears,

(Well, she was old) and,

I had no time for retards

I was too fast for her

Yeah, my technology!

Only, now I wish, if I could've heard

Her out, slow it down,

Now I clutch onto the stream

But the water flows past

It strips me, I'm nothing

No, it won’t last

The pendulum swings

And no one hears my cry,

It’s not coming back

No, time has gone by!

They preached and they pled

They whacked me on my head

Some pulled me down

So I learned to get up instead

"Your life’s your car

Go, steer it as you want!"

But, there’s only so much you can do

When you’re out of fuel

Before you even start

It’s a nightmare and it haunts, Oh!!

So I held on to the ground

But it’s broken beneath my weight

From between my fingers

The sand’s slipped away

The pendulum has swung

The seconds have ticked by

Now it won’t ever come back

The time has gone by!

‘Was so much I could do

That I needed to

Now no fear, no pain

Will bring it back again

And all that it’d ever be

Is what it’s always been

Just a dream!!

Now I clutch onto the stream

I try to awaken the dead

But the bullet’s left the gun

My sky’s a lead

But the pendulum has swung

The seconds have ticked by

Now it won’t ever come back

The time has gone by!

The time has gone by!

Mama said, “Do it now.”

No One’s Slave

Each day unleashed before me

Brings a new sky to the fore

A new colour in the rainbow

That I’d not noticed before

It spreads its wings, wide and fearlessly

Knowing, without it, the picture is incomplete

And though it’s not understood now

It will be accepted eventually

And when the Sun goes down and twinkling is out

Night sky brings to me

So many lights – dull and bright,

Where each one counts,

Though some can’t be seen

They tell me their heart is their guide

There is no wrong, there is no right

So brave, they explore and cross lines!

Not scared of failure or envy

I want to reach for the sky

And put it all in me,

There’s a difference inside

That wants to break free!

So tear apart my heart,

I want to make a fresh start,

So, I am what I want to be

Trying to figure out my life

Who says I can’t take time?

Don’t like the answer I’ve got

That’s not what I want

I don’t want to be

Yet another slave to Stereotype