Choices Poem by Jagannath rao Adukuri

It is on a thin line that I exist all the time.
My hours and days become nights
And dissolve into endless time.
Clearly it was not my choice to exist
Remember, when I came into being
In the viscous amniotic fluid
My body actually started pulsating
Outside of my own free volition.
My birth was a cataclysmic accident
Now that I exist and occupy space
I cannot stop my heart from beating.


Outside, the eagle swirled thrice
In circular motions in the April sky
And settled down on the ledge
Of my nineteenth floor office room.


He looked at me nervously, aware of me.
His shrill eagle-call pierced the sky
As he took off towards its vault
He swirled, once again, in circles
And swooped on the lizard in the bush.
Like me, neither of them had choices.