Expressions writings

LIFE AFTER LOCKDOWN   © Shreefal Mehta    28 April 2020 You need to hear this one read aloud:  https://youtu.be/pYLQJi4lQqg   :-)     I don’t want your assistance, just keep your social distance Hear me out I just want to vent, avoiding careless bumps I feel so spent! I do my bit! keeping my social distancing, Why the hell are you out dancing and prancing? My good health I would like to keep, free the hospitals for others to seek. I’m running running running from the sneeze, I’m falling but don’t touch me please. I see him coming quicken my pace, move out of that ill-conceived embrace Overwhelmed facing a crowd of three, trapped in the store aisle just getting my tea. I hear the virus knocking at my door, is it the pizza boy or the grocery store? Hold on now, should I cancel the uber? Walking in the crowds! I’d feel safer in the sewer. How do I meet and greet, my friends and aunt so sweet. Gnawing anxiety on this expo...

HIBERNATION TRANSFORMATION © Shreefal Mehta  22 April  2020 To hear it read aloud :  https://youtu.be/rIpaIvhYrYc   While spring now germinates, all of humanity now hibernates Day after day twigs and strings, Loving beaks wind into rings, With full belly in her simple nest, eagerly ready going into house arrest Pregnant is humanity with this pause, seemingly wrapped up in TP gauze.;-) We too will emerge in the fullness of summer, not hustle and bustle, with a slow murmur. Never before motionless as one body, Letting earth rest from making it so shoddy! Slowly its turning we feel the earth breathing, robed in grand silence, our absence the cleaning. In the silence as we sit at home and rest, learning and growing would really be best. While around you spring now germinates, you stay home but your mind integrates. Cold ground all is brown quiet under white frost; Underground busy roots, green shoots, no time lost; Humanity seems to ta...

HOW LONG UNTIL TOMORROW ? © Shreefal Mehta 14 April 2020 To hear this read out :  https://youtu.be/jSgTOkvYYWI The green mango dangles luring me from my room The season’s turning here, tell me how’s it in dehradun? The first green shoot breaks through the earth, Spring is ready, I just want to give birth. Mothball away the cold brown earth; I long dream of warmth and mirth I see you all here but today I’m blind; Longing for the morrow is what’s on my mind. A nation in hibernation, a virus on the wing; Waiting I sit for the yellow flower of spring Pregnant moments attack, my plane is on the tarmac Passengers riled up to the gills! Head for the exit, never mind the bills. I learn to forget the recent past; how long can a moment last? I see the path is long and winding, yet tomorrow’s spells are ever blinding. The need of the hour is but to wait on my flower The hour of reckoning is today; even though my wait is until May I am in this day and night...

THE LONG WAY HOME © Shreefal Mehta 11 April 2020 To hear this read out:   https://youtu.be/Mbfl1oZfFmY A dusty road takes my steps along; To none left behind do I belong One among many vanishing feet;  no place I can find to earn my keep Cannot get paid for fear of the germ; drinking wine while they know we run Cut from its thread like a kite; we’re still hurting from the bite Sinking and swinging; floating but no mingling Thousands yet alone; each step is going home We walk forward to leave; No more bricks for us to heave We built the gates they closed on us; What if we don’t return don’t catch that bus? I have no food no water;  I carry two clothes my daughter. I go to heed the call of my land; I have no fear I have given my hand. There is no way no bus no train; I need no seat no more the crane; The land of gold I came broke stone but see their apathy I must go home The warnings I ignore, the troubles we all bore To walk thos...

THIS PARTICLE BRINGS MOMENTS CATHARTICAL By Shreefal Mehta    4 Apr 2020 To hear this read out:  https://youtu.be/-0MALwyRawA An unseen particle has brought alive the Neanderthal When this particle arouses your fear, the best action is to stay put with near and dear For some the solution is bravado and they must challenge the status quo Their arrogance or ignorance raises public anxiety, but for the love of all, stay home with great piety. Staying away is now my affection standing too close can bring affliction Taking this chance for self reflections, a moment for thinking about the best actions They say that this tiny unseen particle, brings for humanity a chance cathartical. One leader’s voice can become our choice The PM of a billion point four, with voice clear spells hope and more You are not alone he says with a roar, the symbol of light will make our spirits soar. Whether you own no cars or four, you have to stay behind that doo...

GIVE DIRECTION TO MY DISTRACTION By Shreefal Mehta. 1 Apr 2020 To hear this read out:  https://youtu.be/vCIoPjryMjU This lock down not shut down I slow down Home stay videos play   Minutes hours slip away A new day but old way habits just stay This work I must - this distraction I trust With the rules we make, a world view we bake With thoughts to myself I give my life; make a change cleave mind’s knife I give a glance get a wink;  life’s changed in a blink The world’s another distraction-  it’s just made from my reaction We dive into old dejections drive ourselves to new elations It’s a bore this here distraction, time to make a new transaction? Which way you glance, whose hand you shake The world you see, your reality you make. In cloudless sky watch hawks as they soar In layered cities above the buildings ten score Effortlessly they go with the flow. So smoothly directing their own show! Their shrill calls pierce open h...

WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER NOW ITS 2020 DECEMBER ? By Shreefal Mehta.     29 Mar 2020 To hear this read out:  https://youtu.be/dr4mosoVhPY What do you remember             Now its 2020 December In your elbow the sneeze             Or at home the squeeze The employers who dropped             Or the workers who walked The ex-President whose cluelessness we bore             Or the PM of a billion point four What do you remember             Now its 2020 December The fear that made you lock and load             Or was it joy that made you stock and hoard? The time you had to rejuvenate     ...

PERSONAL FREEDOMS By Shreefal Mehta   27 Mar 2020 To hear this read out:  https://youtu.be/H0SVfRzl5zI Free-dom is mine I am free under this skydome Personal freedoms we all hold dear but with me your freedom ends here Step back don’t come near Free to be - whatever on tv I see? Free to act out - challenges on tik tok ? Freedom to choose whatever is my muse I can go far and near as long as your space I keep clear Your freedom to light up a smoke - ends when it makes me choke What freedom is it to hold and compare? Freedom is to not grab but share Can we meet on the same line ?  Your freedom is yours and mine mine Listen to your heart - we are not apart, If your free choice is also my voice. Your coin is tails and mine is heads Your light is my shadow and my light your shadow. Free will is choice to make with one voice Not a shout not a whisper, but a song like that from a vesper Our freedoms are of no use if others rights th...

BOUNDARYLESS by Shreefal Mehta.    26 Mar 2020.   To hear this read out:  https://youtu.be/emqwQoW6M9k Boundaries boundaries Borders borders you’re not us let’s put you on the bus close the door wipe the floor run! a sneeze! give space please behind borders behind closed doors breathe! safe air!  is it in my hair?  6 x 6   4 x 6 one room for six Find my boundary need my space in open air I breathe at my pace boundaries boundaries borders borders need to stay in    need you to stay out safe distancing but my food can’t do without I can close my mind but I am really in a bind close the borders! we place orders our society in stasis our spaces in crisis The world reaches out - social media can’t do without  prize our boundaries highlight our geographies Keep the playing order Close our border! Yet when I see you suffer – god damn the order I want to reach y’all but I buil...

THEY WERE A BILLLION POINT FOUR By Shreefal Mehta.    25 Mar 2020 To hear this read out:  https://youtu.be/To0LPaYu3IE They were a billion point four Or so, who’s keeping score? Seven hundred million arguments or more Travelling on the same path;  but right not left, left not right. Still carrying the same past, creed and caste, black and white Me before You, Us before them Look up Look down, Lock down Lockdown! Billion point four no more going out All together breathe in breathe out Look up look down look all around Who are you? My family and my brood My help, my ‘hood and yes my mood. All together now breathe in breathe out Billion point four in my neighborhood!! Air is clear – peace is dear Can’t go out. Time to go in…. Watch the food!! Spark a good mood.. Games within games. Don’t call them no names… Healthy body and healthy mind… Oh, go ahead, I don’t mind… All is clear, life is dear. Mind is a bird, have n...