WHERE ARE THE CHARMS OF THOSE FESTIVE TIMES ?

         








                                           











                             Where are the charms of those festive times ?
                        No songs, no ring of dance, no pageant
                        To thrill our vision with spectacular tints ;
                        Same hours with no remarkable chimes 
                        As blank as this saucer without a glint
                        Of painted palm or cherry red or gliding thyme
                        A heavy meal and then to sleep sometime
                        Or watch T.V. or read through silent print

                        Or chat casually till we feel our time half-spent
                        And then again to sip some hot-flavored drink
                        Or spatter some loose-plaited words in ink
                        Or walk, if time permits, on dusty pavements
                        Where we see only thorny shrubs devoid of green
                        As if Nature too felt the stress of dreary tinge ;
                        A damsel dry with a burning stomach seen
                        Some lewd fellow to tug at her ragged sari-fringe ;
                        A cur retreats vexed by the swarming flies ;
                        A sickly red color pervades the evening skies
                        The moon  with a deadly pallor dimly glows
                        The festival goes by without memorable show.

                                      
                                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^               

      30th September, 2016                                         Somaseshu Gutala