#FOWC – Straight From My Heart

A Tale-of Desolation

Standing in the wilderness,
I am a tale
Of a struggle,
A resistance,
Dogged perseverance
To hold on to existence.
 
This was meant to be a check post
On the border,
manned by a few sentries.
I was their workplace at day
And at night, their nesting shade.
Life then was peaceful, full of joy.
My dear friend, nearby flowed the river
In its cool waters, my reflection
Danced and wavered.
 
Not much activity happened here.
The nights used to come
Dressed to please and charm.
The sentries who stood guard
On the river embankment
Talked in hushed whispers
To drive away their sleep and boredom
And I revelled in many of their secrets.
 
Then the war broke
Men and machines fought
Against each other,
For pride and to possess,
To succeed in beating back death.
Nowhere was any human dignity left.
 
The day the war reached here,
It was a night just like any other.
The enemy came
from the opposite bank of the river,
Against a large platoon of men,
The guards, my inmates, were ill-prepared
And certainly, no match.
They tried to fight back bravely
But fell defending my territory;
Their blood was soon left splattered
On my walls and the river bank.
It was all over in few hours.
 
The enemy moved on and I
Was left standing for many days;
With splattered blood
And stench of rotting flesh
Filling the night air.
 
I still stand today, forgotten, desolate.
The boundaries have been re-drafted
and I am long forgotten.
Even the river has changed course, deserted me.
I stand alone
Carrying the tales of the past
Etched in my crumbling bricks and mortar.

https://pensitivity101.wordpress.com/2020/10/08/three-things-challenge-382/

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #86

FOWC with Fandango — Dignity

Ambition

His stupid heart;
Vehement in its denial
Of all things prudent and practical.
A romantic, by nature.
Living in a fool's paradise.

While his friends were busy
Coping with pressure of the daily grind,
Earning university degrees
A job for the future
Raising a family,
Money for their material benefits,
He wanted to be-
A moonbeam!

Like the moonbeam,
travelling ticketless
Over the whole earth,
He wanted to caress the soul
Of many a traveller
Weary with fatigue
On the road of life.
Like the moonbeam
He wanted to lie, floating
On the vast oceans
And swim with the whales.
Penetrate into
the depths of forests
Basking in the silence
Breathing a bouquet of fragrances
Of wild moss and lichens
And lie peacefully
with the lions outside their den.
Like a moonbeam
He wanted to sooth and calm,
Induce peace and love,
In all hearts baying for blood
And plotting violence
On humanity and nature.

Sitting by the roadside,
In tattered clothes and unkempt hair,
Lost in thought,
Vehemently shaking his head, sometimes,
While staring at the moon,
He still nurses this wish
Of becoming a moonbeam.

Inspired by a famous poem named "Amalkanti" in my mother tongue.

FOWC with Fandango — Vehement

https://pensitivity101.wordpress.com/2020/09/24/three-things-challenge-368/

Caged

Moonbeams shine

Inside a solitary cell.

A prisoner’s mind in turmoil.

FOWC with Fandango — Cage

Spring’s motif

Gulmohur flowers.

Vivid, riveting colours.

Spring in the city.

FOWC with Fandango — Riveting

Passage to Death

Like the pied piper;
His pipe emitting tunes
mellifluous,
Evoking visions,
Life leads us along. 
 
We,on earth,follow;
Intoxicated,
Hypnotized, 
In step with the tune. 
Knowing not where it leads,
Why we relentlessly follow?
 
Then one day
the music stops. 
The trance breaks. 
Excruciating pain takes over; 
Momentarily. 
Then all that is left is
Nothing but
A deafening silence.

FOWC with Fandango — Nothing

#FOWC-Nothing

The earth stirs,
From beneath
the woolly white shroud.
Tentatively, wary, in anticipation,
Exposing itself
only in bits and pieces-
The top of a tree,
A trotting dog on the pavement,
The silhouette of the tower on the horizon.
Ensconced in the smog
It lay in a sort of stupor;
Missing the Sun’s warmth
to thaw frozen life
back on it’s feet.