A square meal a day

A square meal a day

A packed schedule

Squeezed into life

Gained what others lost

Worked, earned but did not share.

Kept looking up

Eager to climb

Pinnacle of success.

Never looked down.

Worked hard to make

World my own

Never to slip and fall,

To join the deprived once again.

Looked down only

To corner all that was theirs

For whom a square meal a day, was worth

More than the land they owned.

Time dictates and I obey

Time dictates and I obey

What I am

I am not forever

But only for a moment

Till that too passes.

Want to remain a moment more

Lost in the maze of life

Or in the cocoon tight around me

But time pushes that moment away.

Time dictates and I obey

A babe today, an adult tomorrow

And the day after, I wilt away

Or fade like stars, in the light of day.

Live today,

For tomorrow may never be.

No more pleas to live longer

Time dictates and I obey.

Hear without listening

Hear without listening

Ears sharp as ever
Whispers too I hear
From the terrace top
Or behind shut doors.

The good or the bad
That comes my way
I hear loud and clear.
Like a stage whisper.

I shut my eyes.
I shut my mouth
But all efforts fail
To shut my ears.

Am I not gifted
With ears
To listen with purpose
Only what is needed.

Times move along
And decades pass by
Sixties and seventies left behind.
But for me always a decade more
Than what I am now
To be called old

But isn’t it time to learn
To hear without listening?