Literary Yard

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‘Pestilence’ and other poems by Tapeshwar Prasad

By: Tapeshwar Prasad

Photo by Adam Nieścioruk

Pestilence

 How hurriedly
I open the faucet
To my burning throat
After the toil of the day and the night
And how, more languidly
I try to tap off the water
of its flow
Flowing drop by drop
Mingling the thirst and
my gloomy thoughts, in between;
‘am afraid
if it could yield not to my wounds
and spill
out of the sink
That could clot, and
Dapple in the light of sorrow
The pestilence
Spreading around

Reality

What dolour
I can see an ant
Carrying a globe
on her hunched back
How ineffable could be
My thoughts
Doling out consciousness
in utter pain
What are these
Realities, per se
That I perceive
in their absences
Heal the world!

Thor of my hammer

You take
One full page of virus
As an art
And make us ill
By your invisibility
Your freedom
Is wingless
A crown all-over to reign
Yet are fearful
Echoing death
You have latched
A will
To plant willow on a mound
But like a hair braid
Of a ferocious witch
You have
All the crooks
To curse the world
Tell me by which thor
Will you be beaten by my hammer

Strange happiness: COVID-19 worn visage

A strange happiness
Possessed me
Behind the face mask
Bridging
Hollow silence of the pandemic night
Superimposing
A balancing act
Over my sangfroid form –
The lockdown
Ah!
The mutilated silence
Hurried its steps
With no dallying time; murky
Near an open grave
These of my
Gnarled nights
COVID-19 worn visage
Of the dying souls
What strange happiness –
A smooth death
Without bloody war

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Tapeshwar Prasad has authored blend of five surrealistic and realistic poetry books, and has been featured in Camel Saloon (U.K.), Cordite Poetry Review (Australia), The Aquillrelle Wall of Poetry, Crashing Waves (USA), Scaling Heights (an Anthology on Contemporary Indian English Poetry), inklinks, Anthesis, Episteme, Heavenly Hymns, I am A Poet, Just for you My Love, Kaafiyana, Resonance (Poets, Artists unplugged), The Significant Anthology, Rhyme with Reason, World Anthology of English Poetry, Acerbic Anthology, Mandela Tributes, Whispering Winds, Intercontinental Anthology of Poetry on Universal Peace, Hall of Poets and many more. He has been included four time as ICOP: Roll of Honour (U.K.)

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