Life tongue-tied

We cannot shame or disgrace our kind
for unkindness…
death, for being unprepared…
firewood, for not being there…
a dignified adieu…
for the many loves gone silently,
unembraced.

Can’t mourn together, can’t cry out loud…
tears held, screams stifled
when the siren shrieks and takes another.
Together as one, broken and shattered,
caught in grief, so lone apart –
a part of an unplanned
carnage center-stage.

Last scene which played
was gasping breaths, and thirsty cries
for air, fare and space to lay love and life.
Unacknowledged sounds
begging for a chance to be
just a fraction more…
but the curtain falls, a hurried pace.

It was a right, or is it right
to wish to be alive,
in the safety of care?
Or is it right to be denied
an equal turn to just survive?
But who questions rights… when teary-eyed,
and death lies heaped, a lifeless face.

My hope tied more, a double knot,
to every breathing prayer today…
my nation rise, forget your wanton pride
and greed in bloody power play.
Rise to the need of a million cries
of life… what more, is greater to life,
than life?

– Monika Khanna Gulati

So sorry, am so so sorry,
for the many loved ones gone…
the dark words are tumbling out.

First posted on 6 May 2021
https://www.facebook.com/monika.k.gulati/posts/10158000996112997