A dusty bookshelf was my home
Tightly pressed since 40 years
Between the sepia pages of a book of poems
Love poems long since forgotten
Just as I withering in my bookish grave
My tint of pretty vintage pink fading gradually
No dew drop will ever caress my soft petals again
I lay in mute testimony of a young love squashed
He had plucked me from the clipped flower bed
Right outside his mountainous barracks
The morning sun had bathed me in an orange glow
The sirens had blared ominously
Making him race towards his aircraft
A thorn pricked his ring finger
Blazing a trail of blood on his uniform
His friend found me in his pocket
With a love note for his lady love She who waited patiently amidst war furore
Her panic stricken heart thudding
I was posted to her once the war madness died
The postman left the letter in her trembling hands
Tears welled up with a gush of emotions
Her brand new husband came sailing in
Flaunting a huge bouquet of red roses
She hid the blood stained letter in her bosom
Close to her silently sobbing heart
Her lover’s handwriting wailing in distress
It was her wedding anniversary today
The letter was read again and again
Wows of undying love etched by her long dead pilot
Sacrificed for his country in a senseless war
I was a rose so I could be pressed between pages
Pages that would never be turned again
War had sounded it’s irreversible knell
On a love that lay strangled in a neglected bookshelf
(Soliloquy of a dried rose pressed between the pages of a book)
Let Peace Be The Latest Fashion !
Have you heard the wails of grieving mothers ?
The shattered shards of shrapnel
Deeply embedded in their mourning hearts ?
Have you seen the vacant eyes of orphans
Gazing piteously in the horizon
Scanning their broken world for a glimpse of their parents ?
Have you watched the streams turn red with the blood of innocent women ?
Raped , molested , shamed in the name of some god or the other ?
Have you watched a man limp home on crutches ?’
The sole bread earner of his family
Sitting in a wheelchair ?
His spirit crushed with inane war ?
His dreams ripped apart with senseless gun fire?
Let peace flourish like an Easter lily
Let the morning dew ease the strife
Let babies live in safe homes
Let peace be the eternal raaga
Crooned in each corner of this fractured world
Let peace be the latest fashion!!
Lily Swarn’s Book ” A Bejewelled Tiara” on Love And Peace recently published by Authors Press is now available on Amazon
International Beat Poet Laureate India 2023 -2024 ,Caesar Vallejo award for literary excellence by UHE ,Lily Swarn, internationally acclaimed ,multilingual poet, novelist, essayist , columnist, gold medalist, university colour holder, radio show host, Peace and Humanity ambassador .
She has over 70 international and national awards including Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi award and her poetry is translated into 21 languages۔
Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi has awarded her recently “The Best Book of the Year Award ( 2023) ” for her book of English Poetry ,The Divine Dialect of Flowers۔ Lily Swarn can be reached at sukhish83@gmail.com
