SUNIL SHARMA

SUNIL SHARMA

The Deserted Streets, COVID-19

The emptiness of the streets,

the lack of sound,

surreal; so is COVID-19;

the city is a Chaplin film now

only solitude is loudly audible

as a background score, a feature

never experienced earlier for so long

21 days and still counting,

the wheels have stopped

the doors are locked

toxic fumes are not daily reality

oxygen levels are high

no blasts from the vehicles

to startle the strays or pedestrians

only--deep stillness, universal, continual;

Are we back in the pre-industrial times

once ardently desired by the neo-Romantics?

A City Of Birds Only

The birds take over

No, not talking of a Hitchcockian frame

but in real-time, a real megapolis.

The birds are flying in the clean air

the sky is clear

everywhere---

pigeons, crows, parrots, sparrows

in flocks, cruise around in the space

or hop on the pavements, most

happily, un-afraid of the creatures that walk on two feet;

the new claimants,

the avian friends have, finally, taken

over the city

from the humans, in an ironic

reversal of rights!

Silence, Primeval, Other-Worldly

Silence is so profound

You can hear the leaves whisper

the wind, whistling in your ear

the city has become a vertical monastery

the manic roads are quiet, an extended garage,

trees remain clean as if washed by the early rains,

no pollution of any kind,

eyes no longer sting

or air pricks;

the ears are not regularly assaulted,

it is the corona-curfew

air-quality has improved.

I contemplate.

Meditate from the balcony

on the altered urbanscape

and diminished hedonism

and the paradox of plague

that confines and liberates

fragile human beings!

Sky, Scrubbed Clean

The sky is blue, after years

the air pure;

At night

the stars are visible

and a moon

this summer night

so enchanting!

The divine calls from those heights

new vistas open up

before the tired eyes

ears are unplugged

mind still---

i become a Zen monk

in that surprising instant

of change within,

getting connected to the celestial things that were there

before and will remain, after me.

SUNIL SHARMA

SUNIL SHARMA, a senior academic and author-critic-poet--freelance journalist, is from suburban Mumbai, India. He has published 22 books so far, some solo and some joint, on prose, poetry and criticism. He edits the monthly, bilingual Setu.