Fame that is negative is notoriety
Birthed in times recent, you though are not nascent
In actions and reactions
From the Princes and Prime Ministers
From the techies and the doctors
From the populace of Breach Candy and New York
From the slums of Dharavi and Delhi
Infusing a deathly fear and fatality
You appear to be the sole agent of mortality.
Beholding you and your lore from lands faraway
I see you inch closer now, fairly a tither away
Breaking the hubris of humans
You are dispensing off millions.
The distant songs and the closer chirps
Herald now a heartfelt dirge
Are you not through yet with the purge?
People are indeed strange,
Inflicting pain and pestilence on one another
Each is hoping the price be paid by the other.
The sterile sealed hospitals akin to white morgues
Gloomily put out another barrage of victims
The dirge of a distant funeral heralds the finality near
These are no martyrs being mourned, their infected bodies run aground.
From tens, hundreds and thousands to lakhs
Counting the dead appears to be the media’s act.
People are indeed strange
They fear finality and revel in life’s uncertainty
Life merely is an illusion, a profusion of passionate moments
It teases, taunts, tests and detests sometimes to penury
Driving one to misery.
Happy they still are to be blessed with life though
For the living their lives are not through
Why not you and I reach a pact?
You have amassed huge numbers
These afflictions will continue to haunt the ones living.
Nations are chastened, its leaders beguiled
The steady stream of bodies continue to be bagged.
Unaware they are of the merits of mortality
Not for them the solace of death that alone offers certainty,
A reprieve from grief, strife and loneliness
It carries one to lands beyond loss and the frailties of love.
Let us then make a pact here and now
Come, for you are welcome amongst us, the seekers
It could be the orphans or the seers
Come for the ones who seek to embark on the journey to eternity
I, just like you, prefer certainty.
People are indeed strange
But leave and let them live
As Princes, PMs or paupers they may be.
A G K
April, 2020
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