Blind Race Poem by Praveen Kumar in Celestial Glow

I knew, she is in wilderness
In thick forest of carnivores
And thorny bushes and giant rocks
With poisonous creepers weaving walls,
Where seldom day-light penetrates,
No blossoms bloom, or birds chirp;
But I had promises to fulfill
And carry onward to that goal
In sweat or tears on the way
And spilling blood in the endeavour;
I could hear her desperate call,
From million miles distance from me,
Across barriers impassable to any;
No more I could assess and judge
While field beckoned to jump and reach,
So I rushed with soul in rage.

It was blind race till the end;
I fell and rose, and flesh sheared
By thorns and edges of mammoth rocks,
Legs entangled in endless creepers,
And body thrusting thro’ walls of woods,
I ran in darkness towards the call,
Ears alert to detect its flow,
So I do no wrong in the line of race;
Years passed in the endless run,
Exhausted and tired, I oft lost sprite,
Recovered while I, about to collapse,
And I ran the race in trebled strength.

No efforts in life ever end in waste,
And I reached the temple she was in,
In utter ruins, cracked, walls faded,
And she was in, all doors locked;
I shouted hard that I had come,
And begged for keys to open locks;
No keys she had, she bitterly cried,
Nor I could break in to thick walls
That stood like demons before us,
And no soul around to help us there;
Exhausted, frustrated, I stared sky,
And stayed put there for all the life,
She is inside, I’m waiting outside.