A societal gimmick

From the very time we are born

To the moments when we breathe our last

Life revolves around things we were sworn

Oscillating between the future and our past.

It isn’t about the right and the wrong

The quotes, the thoughts and the song

This is good and that is bad is all we hear

Snubbing the grey shades, we all bear.

As Shakespeare remarked, Man is a paradoxical being,

full of contradictions, glorious and yet scandalous.

Yet the fragile human heart expects love and forgiveness,

while what remains is just a heap of callousness.

For what we are isn’t what we seem we are

Truth reveals in the darkest of our hours

The never ending lessons on values, morality and ethic

is nothing but an overbearing societal gimmick.

---Sriram

My Prowess

Alone I sit here in my old room

Bags are packed; things set in motion

Yet there’s this weird glory in the gloom

Not allowing me to move ahead inspite of all the devotion

What once made me happy asking for more

Just doesn’t seem to work anymore

And as I explore myself in those files and folders

Deep dark emotions seem to be in galore

While I see those pair of hopeful eyes

With all their aspirations resting on me

And then I see myself in the mirror and wonder

What has gotten into me with this fear and terror?

Is the loneliness which I fear

Or that I might just be another Lear

I wonder if I am all so ready

To keep my mind and heart so steady

Amongst all this shadow of darkness

Are intertwined both dreams and dope

It is time to realize one’s own prowess

And keep moving with that single ray of hope

---Sriram