An evocative poem with an epical sweep – from mythology to contemporary politics of war and aggression – by Subramanian, exclusively for Different Truths. 

The city is a clichéd rebirth or
reconstruct of Yayati,
the mythical Icon of undying youth.
 
He shrivels, too, and is clouded
To see chiselled wrinkles on
His face, a nudge to his memory
that years do not wait or take his worth.

A lone, unpalatable secret he hasn’t
learnt is returning to truth,
a discovery that baulked him.
The world has its own algorithm.

The city, too, expends its
youthful vigour in one nook
before it goes passé,
fatigue saps its breath.
Its dwellers face the same pulls,
to seek, sustain and …succeed
for the world is beyond their ken
the sparkle and scars of beauty
and decay too bitingly transient!
 
Be it an isle, an effervescent city
Or a wound ravaged Ukraine
The cradle rocks on an unsteady hinge.
 
Yayati seems to breathe on all,
rueful water lilies on the placid pond,
the rigour mortis of growing.     

Poet’s Note:  Yayati, the predecessor to the Kuru dynasty a la Pandavas of Mahabharata (Indian epic), is celebrated in exchange for his old age for the youth of his son, Puru, who was revered for his addiction to ethics. His father’s addiction to the world of the sensual made him go through many experiences before wisdom dawned on him. He realised that the world of wealth, women and power had its expiry date.    

Picture design by Anumita Roy, Different Truths

K. S. Subramanian

K.S. Subramanian has published two volumes of poetry titled Ragpickers and Treading on Gnarled Sand through the Writers Workshop, Kolkata, India. His poem ‘Dreams’ won the cash award in Asian Age, a daily published from New Delhi. He has been featured in MuseIndia. His poems and short stories have also appeared in magazines, anthologies and web sites run at home and abroad. He is a retd. Senior Asst. Editor from The Hindu, India.

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