Friday, April 17, 2009

Them Borders

By Gaurav Parab


Little men living by their guns to kill

Big children surviving by their untested will

Solitary souls fighting some stranger’s  war

In old Tel Aviv and once beautiful Lahore

Same flesh covering root through stem

That border in their minds dividing them

 

An old champion falls behind

An unknown at the start of the line

The finishing post comes into view

The champion finds strength to burst through

The difference between the race in each man

That border between winner and also ran

 

Mothers painting images of gods

Preachers screaming about imaginary plots

Each inspiring millions to their own way

Walking with things they heard them say

The difference in each word as it floats along

That border between right and wrong

 

A lost soul desperate to discover

Herself between true love and her lover

Is it wrong to love more than one?

To crawl, when the spirit wants to run?

Dead calm, and stormy weather

That border between breaking herself

 to stay together

 

Children begging for reasons and food

A wandering mind leading a body half nude

Staring at the young ones in their long cars

Is it my past, or is it written in the stars?

A child’s value, his chances and his worth

Divided by borders defining the accidents of birth

 

What should be done- where to stop?

Relationships to stitch and lies to chop

Sinful thoughts and the innocent mind

Promises to keep, horrors to remind

The skies to fly and the grounds to fall

Can do with borders strong and tall


Reasons to love, reasons to dance out with joy

Reasons to destroy everything made to destroy

Black, white and those shades of grey

 

Differences between tomorrow and yesterday

A place to stay, one to depart

Divided by borders than should be blown apart




7 comments:

Anonymous said...

you are too good! I am jealous of you man.....

please reply to mail(s)....

Anonymous said...

Superb, Gaurav!!


- Sanjay Purohit

Anonymous said...

wow..

Anonymous said...

Absolutely beautiful!

Atrisa said...

The part about the class gap really struck a chord somewhere :) I can't fathom how it would have been had I not been this fortunate. Whenever I'm going through a personal crisis, I take comfort in the fact that despite everything I am one of the very few lucky people in the world; sadistic? Anyway as far as I think, you captured it to the T.

Anonymous said...

I bet this one gets you more replies than you've got in a long time.

I'm not sure what line to praise.

Did you write this for the 'Borders' theme? I bet the others didn't have a chance!

Really good stuff.

- Amit Bhatia

Aravind Ganesan said...

The flip side to borders is that when you break some , you create others. That is because you proud of the border you broke.

This poem took me through various feelings. It jumped, dived and ran through borders. The writing was so integral to the theme. I liked it.