In the world of rituals
The milk of spirituality
Looses its whiteness.
Value of identification lies
Closely
As flowers and fruits to the trees.
We belong to one seed and a common gene
Cladding shades of climatic skin.
moking is Injurious to Health
A false and idiotic slogan, you ridicule.
Taking out a cigarette from a new pack,
You start smoking; thinking morosely;
It all started in the company of friends.
Now, the cigarette is your inseparable companion.
Initially one per day, gradually increased to many.
A chain smoker, a reputation you readily earned.
Impressed by your matinee idol smoking in style,
(But your hero never smokes in real life!)
You fervently imitate his smoking style.
Smoking is a stress buster you believe,
In reality it makes your life more stressful.
Surrounded by children, you exhibit,
Your smoking skill- an unwarranted exercise.
Deeply inhaling the smoke,
You blow patterns of rings thru,
Your nostrils and foul smelling mouth.
Children applaud; you are great they think,
One of them even wants to try it at home.
You smoke wherever you are,
Whenever you feel like,
At home, in the office, busy market place;
Unawares create a band of ‘passive smokers
And irresponsibly ruin their health as well.
When you burn a cigarette,
It burns a hole in your pocket too.
The money you spend wastefully,
Can feed a poor child for a day.
One day on your way to office you collapse.
At the hospital, series of investigations
Confirm your advanced state of lung cancer,
After a few anxious and hectic days,
You are declared dead,
An immature death, of course,
Leaving behind ten years of govt. service,
Wife, two unmarried daughters, and aged parents.
At home in the freezer box your body is kept.
Your dear and near ones
Terribly shocked, weep inconsolably,
Not that you passed away suddenly,
But you invited death knowingly.
Your soul is hanging around now,
Waiting for its final departure.
And you see the cigarette pack on the table,
The statutory warning,
Smoking is Injurious to Health,
Appears to you in bold letters.
You curse yourself for being such an idiot,
For failing to take the warning seriously.
Let my wayward life and death be a lesson to you;
Give up smoking, please,
Aloud you want to say, but you can’t.
It is too late my friend.
Humility
with pride and arrogance
stalls expression:
self-illusions aren’t
aesthetic adjustments
nor is poet
larger than himself
when he says
he’s too small
–R.K.SINGH