IN BETWEEN

                  

                               

1.         Thy ways so strange and weird seem

      You lift our souls to jump with joy to scream;

      You hurl us down to depths of gloom and despair

      Why so sudden change? Is it fair?

      A mixed web of pleasure and pain

      A gift of beneficence or disdain?

 

2.         You give us a taste of heavenly bliss

      In warmth of mother’s closest kiss;

      You give us sportive mirth and merry play

      With friendly company jovial and gay;

      A phase of golden years with no burdens and load

      Childhood, a smooth and care-free road.

 

3.         You fired our fancy to unreachable heights

     You plan our path so rough and not so straight;

     So many hurdles test our struggling mind

     So many challenges, our goal too hard to find;

     Very few lucky ones their goals attain

     Others retreat wounded, deep-struck with pain.

 

4.         Our fancy runs riot beyond our reason’s range

     Our vision seems blurred, vague and strange;

     We chase shadows hare-brained with foolish grit

     Till we lose their grip and concede defeat;

     A waste of time and resources, a thing of past;

     Our dreams melt down in factual day at last.

 

5.         Our burdens increase with growing age

     Our ways appear like labyrinthine maze;

     Our youthful dreams, like stars beyond our hold

     Our inner drive slows down as we turn old.

     Why such regressive dissolution?

     Is there no ultimate solution?

 

6.        A series of sharp and uneven ups and downs

    We swell with joy on crests of success to drown

    Into dark depths, a sudden reversal of fate;

    Till yesteryears so great, now destitute, a spate

    Of hurdles to test and crush our pride;

    We feel rebuffed by Time’s unexpected stride.

 

7.        We swing between extremes of ice and fire

     No time to acclimatize to realms so dire

     Like Lucifer in livid burning spires;

     We are thrown into realms with frozen desires;

     What do we gain from these swift changes in life?

     What do we lose from this uncertain strife?

 

8.         How odd and incomprehensible display!

     Sages ascribe this to Thy sportive play;

     So many tender blooms cut off in prime

     While suffering lives survive beyond their time;

     For these worldly tensions where is the end?

     You seem to exult in unforeseen turns and bends. 

 

9.         Injustice seems to flourish day by day

         While honesty beggared collapses on the way;

     While corruption rules free and total power wields

     Transgressing rules forcing common people to yield

     Why this discrimination and why so mute?

     Can’t Time punish these inhuman brutes?

 

10.     Our sense-bound reason can’t unfold Thy maze;

     Time’s mysterious ways beyond our gaze;

     Our faltering steps guided by forces unseen

     To burn our passions and make our minds serene;

      Meanwhile we pray to Thee to purify our minds;

      Let us not lose our faith, Master Gracious and Kind!

 

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     10th June, 2022                     Somaseshu Gutala