Imphal Review of Arts and Politics

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Dept of Environment and Climate Change

And it Happened so Fast and other poems

And it happened so fast

By R.K. Lakhi Kant

 

If my palms were open

it would bring the freshness of air into it

for in the alien place they call home

I am no more than a stranger, doubt

Maybe I loved to

grow up like that, not

caring what would happen next

except the next song on the tape

that sceptics said would only aggravate

There were too many of them I

had no real crush

a cushion is reality for a youngster

conversation’s the background

there’s no immediate necessity but

anyway one more would do

As friends we meet, we

don’t see anything apart,

the higher the mountain the

lesser the need, for

anyway you would be at the mercy of

others who instantly love and care

for you, like lower down you

wouldn’t find time to do

something like that, would be safe

for us, I tell them without

considering there are others beyond the

family who would petrify you till

grown up to the world late or soon you

would know it’s just the world you

wanted to forget about

Like grease on the hands if you want

to know what runs the engine of the world

it troubles for some time till

you do away with it trying

so in a hurry, as much as you can

Did it cost an effort and

have you regained your senses

Life is no more a twin reality but

sometimes I like to be home till

I realise home is a toil, its

no more the same youth

is gone and following it some

bitterness does survive, only

to tell me that I was never with

the shows clowns that ask me about

youth and approaching old age, for

there is less to appreciate in them than

a meal of badly cooked fish I had to digest cause

at that time I couldn’t forsake, I

wouldn’t like to hear much of what

they say, it hurts like no other would do but

like grease on the hands I only

wish it doesn’t do the same to the rest of me

sometimes I only wish I wasn’t here

they wouldn’t spare and

elsewhere I wouldn’t care till

I find it difficult to recall what was there, if

ever I would be where I would be spared the

attention while I wolfed down the food of life

now I am too conscious that

I used to be in love in the thickness of smoke and

for the good of myself I

wouldn’t forget it, does good to the self, like

a table full of friends that have just left, for

I get tired now moment by moment these men

have eaten into me, so that

I forgot to say cheese and frowned when

the last of the snapshots were taken with

my friends and me, but I do not

make much of it like they do, my

adversaries, whom I meet each day on

the streets, as if foretold I find no

cause or curative for them

I live as I am

with belief and littleness of say, of love and

peace, I rapidly invade into the enemy territory

 

 

 

 

 

Above them is my love

By R.K. Lakhi Kant

 

I live yonder

over there

where there’s no shame

humiliation is sometimes

my only food

though they always

promised much more

Will they ever forget

themselves sometimes

to remember me

The love I chose

forges me a destiny

How could I forget

ever, that these are my

love, my song,

my strength

Others I think

sometimes about

when it’s around

surprised for the hate

that wells up and maybe is in me

close contact,

it goes either way

it doesn’t go away

 

 

 

Before I sleep, a new world would come

By R.K. Lakhi Kant

 

As quiet as if nothing had happened

outside, nothing to experience,

the hours dry as a dry leaf

If you put your effort, your foot to it

it would give a crushing sound

as if it already belonged to the earth

All the men and women mingling,

the crunching sound

like the crackling sound of dry fire

It’s a revolution without a gun

the air is clear, the water clear

what man had made, everything was undone

Why does he fight like this

with nature, with everyone

like a foolish child,

except themselves

blaming everyone

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