Alive! Poem by Saroj Padhi

To live on is to go on in best of times, in worst of times
with oneself and others as well, believing in the best
though feeling low at times, pondering over the vanity
called life, yet clinging on to a grey leaf, like a tiny pest;

staying alive in this Corona-devastated world is a wonder
when your lips dry up in empty expectation of ecstasy
humans with mask draw away from love in fear of fever
and in company of inanimate things you dream of fantasy;

gone is the splendour of rainbow, the grandeur of all sight
the Moon looks on like a slut with hunger in shadowy eyes
war-planes scale over border, under a sky torn by fright,
yet with self I try to build on, more and more of creative ties;

thank God, I breathe on when many are in the ventilator
and flowers lovely bloom on, despite ghosts' empty flutter!