Sad Defiance

by

Dark clouds gather
As old wounds fester
In a heart heavy
With griefs unknown,
Barren lands, yet to discover…
In a sparkless world –
Where tears do not rain,
Not anymore,
To ease some tension .
My pen, traitorous,
Refuses to bleed
Any more words,
On your stale paper.
Nor do pixels fall,
Like a sad game of Tetris,
To conjure up words
While your screen scrolls away…
Like how you look away
When your eyes lock
With the destitute, derelict,
Blank look of a vagrant.
If only papers could
Scream out, cry out
Or even whisper:
“Help!”
“Please!”
Would you truly listen?
Or be content with just hearing?
The spider Anansi,
Weaver of stories and lies,
Is now too tired
To hold these broken heart strings
Of a worn-out poet,
Refusing to wait any longer
For the final respite,
Seeking a sweet deliverance.
But the rebel lives on!
Sailing full sail without care
Towards an unavoidable void,
Mockingly depriving Yama of another soul,
Rope burns on his palms,
Instead of his neck –
Life’s hickey on his defiant hands,
For his subtle, silent act of courage;
Bleeding out his signature
On an ungrateful water;

A semicolon marks the moment you could have ended your story, but chose instead to pause — to breathe, to endure, to begin again.

Image credit: Feature image generated with DALL·E using a prompt based on this poem and its themes.
If this piece resonates with you and you’re a visual artist, I’d love to feature your own soul-crafted work in place of the AI image.

From the poetry compilation

Happy Hallucinations

More Poems

Happy Hallucinations

Happy Hallucinations

I hopeTo find myselfIn your happy hallucinations,Where you could gazeAt the butterflies inside my stomachJittering at your sightFluttering purple kisses,Sometimes teal, or pink…To contrast your inner worldOf a thousand shades of grey,To remind you of a worldFull of...

Little Death

Little Death

The wise ones often sayWhen one faces death –The eternal oblivion,The shared experienceThat makes us all kin –One sees with clarityThe life that one livedWith moments bitter-sweetSavoured once more,In a flash of a moment,In the blink of an eye...What I’d like to...

Mirror

Mirror

You’re not a ‘damaged good’. Not to me, at least. You’re alluring In your chaotic grace, A bright candle Daring to burn its brightest On a dark stormy night. The fractal cracks Of your broken heart Radiates with an ardent passion – An incandescent guiding light For...

Let it Break a Little

Let it Break a Little

Let your heart break a little. Let the light enter That stale room. Let birds make their nest And mushrooms enroot In those caves. Let ivies crawl up your heartstrings. Let the caterpillars Eat through your pain, Slumber, then Cocoon in your cavity. Let them wake up...

👻

👻

Swipe right,Swipe left,Left, right, left,Keep marching,Forward!Left, right, left!Ew!Just… No!Hard pass!Swipe right,It’s a match!WTF?WTF! No thanks!But, maybe...💦👅?🍑🍆👉👌? Left,Left,Left, right, left,Left alone,Swipe left,Swipe right,Hmm, she looks cute,Swipe right,Swipe...

Shieldmaiden

Shieldmaiden

Don’t be my Juliet, Nor my Leila, Or a Rapunzel trapped Far away atop A phallic tower Anxious to be rescued. Don’t lie half dead In a maze of roses, Or under a glass coffin. Don’t bother showing up In a pretentious ball, Wearing uncomfortable glass slippers, Only to...

Keep in Touch

YouTube

Become a Subscriber

LinkedIn

For professional purposes

TikTok

Follow me!

It’s a Rik Life

Rik Bhattacharja © 2023

All Rights Reserved