English Literature – Poetry ☆ The Pandemic Prism ☆ Colonel Jayant Khadilkar

Colonel Jayant Khadilkar

(We proudly welcome Colonel Jayant Khadilkar  on e-abhivyakti.  Colonel Jayant Khadilkar was commissioned in June 1980 into the Corps of Signals. He is an Alumnus of National Defence Academy, Pune and Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. Academically brilliant, he was awarded Plaque of Honour in Signals Young Officers Course and Army Chief’s Gold Medal in the Signals Degree Engineering Course. He is an expert in Electronic and Information Warfare.  He was awarded the first prize for his MBA thesis on the use of Decision Making techniques in Electronic Warfare.  Colonel Jayant pursues writing as a hobby, to capture his thoughts on topics of current public interest.  Today, we present his contemporary poetry The Pandemic Prism.)

☆ The Pandemic Prism ☆

Ever in  the news since late 2019 November

Novel Corona is what we call this character

Spreads through humans to cover its ground

It is invisible but is sure to be lurking around

Incomparable suffering it has caused

Travel  and business too, it has paused

With no  definite cure  worth the name

Humans, the sure victims of this game

Such is the ferocity of  wretched damnation

That one wrong move may wipe out a nation

So let’s cooperate with authorities to function,

assist in their efforts,  causing no confusion

Though we had always turned a blind eye

To one’s  own  greed  and others’  misery

And it required a Corona to shake us all

To pull us out of our self-imposed reverie

It’s time to learn to respect each other,

empathise and grant dignity of  labour

For, the next Corona version may require

Any one  of us to be the  front line soldier

Nature may have a different shade

of this Corona episode and disaster

For it has caged the greedy humans

And allowed other things to prosper

Now  air is ever fresh, waters are clean

Birds’re    chirping,  countryside is green

Even the humankind, although confined

Is  networking  with  gusto so far unseen

Forced out of the mindless rush

We  are  back  as being  humans

Instead of  those  rats in the race

without any  feelings or emotions

© Col Jayant Khadilkar, Veteran

Pune