Comfort and Solitude - Vijaya Sundaram

Posts Tagged ‘ Comfort and Solitude ’

In response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt: Contrast

Sun in a Universe Blacker than Night
©March 9th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

The night presses so blackly
Against my cold window-pane,
That the absurd orange of
Fake cloth flowers holds it back.

Night staggers away, singing –
A drunk in delirium.
I am not fazed. I sit and
Sing my song to solitude.

All around me press the ghosts
Of those past, and those to come.
I greet them and leave them be.
I have work to do right now.

Faraway ambulance wails.
Who goes where at 2:00 a.m.?
– Life so tenuous, like glass
Blown by a drunken artist!

I sit here calmly, knowing
As sure as the sun will rise
That I shall live, and live long.
This is not dumb arrogance.

Somewhere, dawn breaks over hills
Here, though, I fight the night with
Borrowed light, and invite sleep,
Comfort and warmth in silence.

Such foolishness to presume
That such things will always exist!
And yet, what do I gain by
Speculating on disaster?

Somewhere, people fight and die
Somewhere, people starve and die
Somewhere else, women give birth
Till the fields, harvest the wheat.

And it hurts me, every day –
The wounds of all who live, and
The terrors of all who die.
Still, I dream, and sing my song.

And the earth keeps spinning on,
Blue marble seeking her boy.
Her Sun keeping watch in a
Universe blacker than night.

___________________________________________________