Cut the Cake

 

 

 

       You and I,
                          We both know better than
  The excitement of a destination.
            We’ve shared sighs of resignation,
Twilight was brighter back in the days.
            But the yellow brick road tarnished by tar
Is evermore garnished in scars

                                     Of emptiness,

In the crowds that mow together down the lane.
 Hardly smiling under the vengeful sun,
            Their day won't vouch
            For the joy in the journey
        Due to their lack of a destination.
           It is hard to cover new ground
When life runs its course only in full circles.

                        Endangered, earnest;
          Adopting redundantly incoherent conveniences.
Like (an absence of) the last time you stopped to smell a rose...

Or any such cliché.

Or smiled at the thought of free will
        After the lifetime of it as a favorite excuse.
   The fine line of what you do and what you must,
                     It is of invisible dust
                        That which you too will crumble into
            And though your journey might not end
Sometimes one step backward
                        Is like two steps forward ... into a wall.  

 

               

- Vineet Kaul