Padam Bishwokarma
Time and circumstances keep changing
Time, after all, is a wave in the sea
That swells now and subsides then;
It is like a swelling brook in summer
That comes with a gush, and slows down in no time
It is flood-water that can wash away
And
Fling us on the bank;
Life too is a deluge
It swells, subsides, but flows with no stop.
Time is a flower too
That germinates, bears a bud, blooms out and withers
The flow of life, like time, runs
We must have the guts to seize time
That is like an unpicked flower.
What do power, regime and rule account for?
Time comes and goes
Power in hand transpires.
Time doesn’t remain the same
And leaders lose elections.
Time and contexts are marked by such routines;
One must be able to cash the best of conveniences.
Time is the wind
That rises with a storm, and slacks
Time comes once, like the breeze
We must be able to harness it
Once slipped off, time doesn’t return
But gets dissolved, as air does.
Time and contexts are dreamlike,
Like delirium, that comes and goes in no time
We must be able to taste the true bliss of a dream
Else, it might slip the moment we wake up
Life, after all, is a dream too
It shakes us, and fleets away
Leaving us thinking:
Life is nothing but a mysterious forage.
Time is a pistol bullet,
It pierces, the moment it’s out of the snout
And in a minute, devastates an entire family
As it finished off the royal stock.
Time is a bullet
It can ravage the way it made the entire palace a graveyard.
For this, time and contexts come and go
We must make the best use of them
Before it is too late.
[Padam Bishwokarma is a poet of Nepali origin, based now in Colorado, USA. Former President of International Nepali Literary Society, (INLS), he is presently the President of Padam Bishwokarma Foundation. His published collections include Word Florets (poem) and Tamsuk (stories).]