Rising and ebbing,
There could not be a retreat.
My head was full of noises,
Defining how in secret, I feel.
I could have been on a rail-track,
With the black monstrous engine,
Rumbling forward to crush my joints.
The sound of ocean came crashing:
Through the impaired doorway
Of my faint-hearted mind.
Salt-water waves were filling
My gasping lungs.
A crowd around me was gathering,
Looking with mock weariness,
towards my limp form.
Someone was shouting hoarse
On a distant shore,
To give me help.
But, he was not moving,
Only standing and shouting.
I remember being told to say a prayer!
Exceeding, beyond, beyond, beyond,
On another round,
I felt everything turning pallid.
My body was slowly sinking,
S-I-N-K-I-N-G…
At the end, the naked surroundings,
Reeled into some peppered darkness.
The darkness was some sort of a cave.
This is how – abject loneliness falls:
Upon my familiar sleep.

 

12th August 2011

                          

Geeta Chhabra