Another
Day In Paradise
I
was walking down the alley way
Rubber
soled shoes on the cobbled street
A
neon light lit the way
A
solitary policeman on his beat
A
blanket of black above with scattered twinkling stars
A
half orange moon helping you catch moonbeams in jars
A
wide eyed owl perched upon a stunted tree
The
night was still young and the wind roamed free
A
frail speck of humanity
In
the form of a pauper
Paid
heed to his destiny
Lying
beside the creeper
That
lined the walls
Beyond
which lay
The
cemetery
Did
I say lay
Green
grass now shining dark
Criss
crossed with white marbled crosses spread
Lining
the walk grew gladiolas gay
All
those lying were long gone dead
Dried
tears and shriveled bones
Lamented
below the tombstones
A
solitary lamp shone its light
Catching
the pauper in the dark of the night
And
I wondered as to who was more dead
Those
within the cemetery or the one who begged for his daily bread
Each
morning sunlight greeting his day with dread
To
trepidation and despondency was he wed
The
policeman now upon his beat
Came
up to me with hurried feet
With
one hand he lifted his cap to me
With
the other he brandished his truncheon upon the beggardly
Man
This
speck of humanity was brushed aside
He
scampered into the vanishing night
And
I was left
Alone
With
the neon light
A
half moon
Diminishing
stars
And
hundreds of dead people
Is
death a medal
I
know not
Is
it the beginning or the end
Or
is it the pot
Of
gold at the end of the rainbow
Whose
colours smudge with passing day
Where
man kills man to earn his pay
A
land where people know not how to give
A
land where you cannot outlive
Your
problems
Unless
you cease to be
A
part of this hypocritical humanity.
Dawn
peeked from the eastern sky
And
a ribbon of crimson sparkled up high
The
neon light was now a shadow
In
God’s mighty sunlit meadow
I
trudged on as dawn overcame the night
And
birds chirped in passing flight
And
as I came upon the bridge
Which
lay upon a narrow ridge
Beneath
its bows I espied the man
Who
from the policeman had quickly ran
Lying
in fitful sleep
Not
caring about the morrow
For
him there was no time to weep
For
his life mankind did not borrow
He
lived by the day
And
died by the night
He
did not have the will to stand and fight
He
had no right
Save
pain
He
had no might
Save
that which killed him to take on the strain
Another
day
Lost
in the maze of society
Forgotten
An
absolute non entity
He
was but the bench upon the foot walk
A
patch upon which even dogs would walk
His
life was
But
An impending death knell.
~Vikram C~
