MIDNIGHT SHOCK—By Jagjit Singh Sidhu

MIDNIGHT SHOCK

Ever since that midnight shock

My faculties‘ve hit a road-block;

Booming whispers, piercing cries heard I,

Vague they were but certainly nigh.

 

Something drew me to the terrace,

A silhouette, eyed a figure at some distance;

Close look revealed a tear-stained face;

Dared I, “Who art thou”?

Spirit it was that endured a wistful glance —

Gaunt, emaciated, sickly ‘n weak —

As if afflicted for many a week.

Thus, it bawled to my shock and surprise,

Howls that cut me down to size:

“I hover hither and thither disconsolate,

Suffering alone, shedding copious tears of despair,

Forsaken, forgotten and forlorn

Moving from room to room, one corridor to another

Yearning for the cries, shouts ‘n laughter

Of sprightly souls, pacing up and down;

Suffocation, stale and smelly air

Stifle me day and night.

 

Feeling frustrated, miffed and disgruntled,

I rest my head on my own shoulders,

Shed bitter tears, loud unheard wails.

I rove, screams echo on hitting the walls,

Emptiness, silence of my soul, layers of dust,

Spiders, hanging from the ceiling and walls, my companions;

As night envelops, I wrap myself in my grief;

Nothing but deafening silence ‘n my profound sighs, I hear.

 

SPRING and LOCKDOWN came together –

A riot of colors,  pellucid-winged  butterflies,

Buzzing ‘n busy bees, clamorous cacophony of blithe birds, fragrant breeze –

All unnoticed, none to look on, chase or enjoy;

They call it, The Curse of Corona:

Deathly silence all around.

 

I suffer in my solitary confinement —

Isolated, desolate, unaccompanied, lonesome.

O hear me, MY DEAR CHILDREN! I bleed,

Frail, exhausted, life-blood draining out,

RETURN SOON, life and blood of SD Govt College.”

 

Agony and distress drowned me, slumped I there,

Oblivious of time, eyes opened , no apparition.

I rubbed my eyes, was it there or an illusion?

Yes, nothing‘t was but my fantasy, seclusion, vacuum,

( Jagjit Singh Sidhu )

Mr. Sidhu is an alumnus of Satish Chnader Dhawan  (SCD) Govt. college Ludhiana with a PG from this college in 1972 with scholarly laurels . He may be contacted @ =91 9465118377

Home

The  Global Talk media is so proud of Govt. College alumnus who writes very sublime poetry.