JERNAIL SINGH ANAND

JERNAIL S. ANAND

THE FINAL LOOK

Come let us share a few moments

As we sup coffee together.

Words spoken or left unsaid are following us.

Our figures and our words form strange combinations.

I wish you make a slip

And I can pick up some clues

About your love.

Yes of course we like.

I don't want we remain two names

From matrimonial columns.

Sharing a few moments

Over a cup of coffee

Gives us a chance

To measure each other out.

And decide whether to set out

On a long sojourn

Or suspend here all the tall talk

In this body, what lies beyond words,

How much truth

Will it stay

Will you be able to belong to me?

And can I sing the love song

For you?

I have to be rock-proof to say

Yes or No.

I am trying to cast a final look at you

From all sides

As we go about a car

Before signing the cheque.

SHADOWS AND FORESHADOWS

(A POEM SET IN 2250)

A teacher asked a small school boy

To come to school

With a sample of clay.

This school was somewhere in America.

Next morning the boy said to the teacher...

I will show it next Monday?

Why?

I have placed an order on Flipkart

For ten capsules of clay

From India.

I need some water.

The teacher gave him

a small capsule of water.

There was a long bell.

Kids started heading for the hostel.

Then teachers too.

Nobody went to any home.

No one had come

To take anyone.

The whole young generation

Was parentless.

Brought up in govt nurseries.

No one married.

Had kids from sperm donation.

And I saw a weird sadness

Reigning all around.

What was missing?

I looked up.

Skyscrapers had dwindled

The sky

And the earth below was plastered with plastic.

I went to a wonderful patch

Of glowing flowers.

When I tried to touch them,

A message appeared

Don't touch.

They are only an illusion.

Even the water flowing from water falls

Was an illusion.

Shocked I touched an attendant

Standing nearby

To confirm..

he too was not Maya.

What was I? Was I still alive?

How come I dragged

Into two centuries ahead?

You too are a shadow sir

The attendant said.

What were those kids?

All shadows.

I too am a shadow.

And he vanished leaving me dumbfounded

and waiting to disappear.

APRIL AND THE FLOWERY HOSTS

A Poet I heard crying

April is the cruellest month.

I feel offended.

April brings flowers in millions

Lined across vales

Who invite men to shed their heavy weight

And dance with them to the tunes

Of the vagrant winds.

Don’t ask for a life like flowers.

You are asking for suicide.

Evening is their expiry time.

Nothing in life can stay happy for years.

For joy is a momentary game.

Meant for flashy seconds

Not to last for years.

If you really wish to keep smiling

And spreading fragrance

While you are alive

You need a great training of your mind.

For body is only a little bit

Man lives for most part in his mind.

Whatever they have

Flowers spend it out by the evening.

We who try to lock up our joys

Cannot go happy like them.

If we too open out our petals

And give away our treasures

People will find us

Full of fragrance and admire our

Divinity.

To be sublime and divine,

And smile like flowers

You need a mind which is trained

In feeling joy when you surrender

And give it all away.

Welcome! Dear April.

The sweetest month of flowers.

But shocking for us humans.

Who make sacks of our bodies

And graves of our minds.

JERNAIL SINGH ANAND

Dr. JERNAIL SINGH ANAND [b.1955] is an internationally acclaimed poet, writer, critic, spiritualist, and philosopher. Author of more than 55 books, of English poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and spirituality, he is also the co-innovator of the critical theory of Biotext. A Professor of English by profession, Dr. Anand holds Ph.D degree from Panjab Univ. Chandigarh, and D.Litt from Univ. of South America. Dr. Anand was awarded Cross of Peace and Cross of Literature by World Union of Poets [Italy], Lord of World Peace and Literature, and Award of Supreme Excellence by Vishwabharati Research Centre, etc. His recent works ‘GEET: the Unsung Song of Eternity’ [a lyrical epic – a sequel to Milton’s ‘The Paradise Lost’]  ‘Ganturbury Tales’ [a near sequel to Chaucer’s ‘The Canterbury Tales’ ] – for which he was awarded Trendy Tale Teller Award- and his work of poetry;  ‘Fighting the Flames’ are his masterpieces, coupled with his forth coming work of great promise: ‘The Satanic Empire’ [an epic sequel to Dante’s The Divine Comedy] and a novel ‘The Barbed Wire’