LILY SWARN
THE COBBLER
The cobbler sat hunched
Back bent double
Scrawny bony limbs
Skin shiny
Brown as a berry
Quite like the sheet of leather lying in a grotesque
heap beside his unshod caroused feet
His short sighted eyes
painstakingly peering into the
Fine stitches he crafted into the
Ragamuffin sandals
The nursery rhyme echoed in my ears
""Cobbler cobbler mend my
shoe ...
Get it done by half past two "
His hands were numb with the
Chilly blasts of piercing wind
Lashing against the flapping
Piece of plastic that pretended
unsuccessfully to be the roof for his ramshackle shed!
I staggered and lurched to a halt
Watching the sophisticated lady
Getting out of the long gleaming car.
She threw down a bag of shoes
""Mend them in an hour
Shambhu "", she almost barked !
I shall be stopping on my way back
from the club!
"Yes Memsahib ",He
croaked and stammered .
Life went on as smoothly as the
wheels of the luxury car
The perfume from the lady's red
coloured hair lingered
Blocking the stench of disparity
The stink of poverty cowered in
fear !!
Copyright Lily Swarn 9.1.2016
SHE!
SHE
Her own woman
She blazes like a luminous moon
Irradiating the world she revolves
around
She is the baby girl who twirls her
doting dad
Around her little finger ,lisping
love words in his ears
She pirouettes in her frilly pink
dress ,the cherubic little miss
The studious school girl next
reading till late at night
She is a wizard with computers
deftly solving physics problems
While trying out her mama's high
heels and lipstick like a clown
She is her own woman soon
Who will not bow to patronizing
male superiority
Highest scorer in her business
classes
Debating and declaiming with
panache
Sassy young dreamer with a cocky
gait and stance
Eve teasers give her a wide berth
for her judo chops she flaunts
Whenever a roadside Romeo decides
to whistle and ogle
Her jeans may be frayed and faded
,her brain is razor sharp
She won't forget a kindness but if
you try and act smart
Remember her karate black belt Is
adorning the showcase at home
The CEO of the biggest corporate
houses
juggling motherhood and foreign
tours
Eating at the classiest eating
houses the world has ever known
She cooks only if she wants to for
her husband does it better !
Her clear eyes speak volumes of the
superior soul she harbors
Her gym trained body well toned
doesn't need any godfathers
She is the female of the species
and is deadlier than the male
Rudyard Kipling knew her ,she won't
waste breath on discussions
Going straight for the kill is what
she does instinctively.
I am trying desperately to be like
her
For I am also my own woman !
Copyright Lily Swarn 25.2.2017
BLEEDING HORIZONS
Where the sky meets the earth
And horizons bleed to death
Do you see that land of no return
Where Dreams are strangled to death
?
No lark soars up to the heavens
No peacock dances in the rain
Smokes billow in this land
Hunger gnaws at intestines
Crestfallen heads that never look
up
Backs broken with the weight of
debt
Farms strewn with lifeless zombies
In the lands of bountiful plenty
Tender fingers exposed to blazing
furnaces and harsh chemicals
In factories of pretty glass
bangles !
Carpets that adorn halls of luxury
Woven with fingers that will
never hold a book
Eyes that will never read a letter
No school bell beckons these kids
Only the horrific bell waking them
for more work at break of dawn
Huddled like chickens trussed up
for slaughter
Humans living in inhuman
degradation
Shylocks extracting their pound of
flesh
Coerced into debt bondage
With violence and threats
Africa ,Caribbean , South East Asia
Quarries of Punjab ,brick kilns ,
mills , factories
littered with faces of abject
poverty
Untouchables in the world of the
heartless
Coming from realms of God
No man has the right to reduce
another
To this life of miserable indignity
Don't let this happen dear Lord
This mortification , this abasement
This humiliation,this shame !
Don't let my horizons bleed !
Copyright Lily Swarn 19.4.2016
LILY SWARN
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