Once That Lone Door Is Shut – Poem by rama teertha

The contacts between this and the outer world snap away
On the other side of the door it is a different world
And on this side yet another different world

Though a relation exists
For the time being both are separate worlds

Once that lone door is shut
A murder may take place or a suicide
Oppression unlimited, dissipation beyond resurgence,
Tortures elevated to fine art,
Continual conflicts,
And countless fortunes to have a glimpse at the veritable hell
The feudal crudities, and the imperialistic pomp
All exist here

Why at all in the first place man made a house
Why he installed a door
, as an Ideal to what worlds this contraption was made
is it for that he required a solitary place of retirement

A trace this is for what kind of a thought that took shape
In the pristine primordial days

He took birth here,
And he kept his birth a captive here alone
What was thought of as a measure of security
And was invented
It became a private hell and
A venue for all acts of violence and endless cruelty

Once that lone door is shut
If one concludes that everything is snapped
it’s a mistake

Everything wakes up and unleashes havoc at this very place
The terror unfolding
The now visible and now invisible
Shameful endless acts,
the cliché-ridden arguments and counters
the virile sterile sapless daily chores


other side of the door an executioner’s block
this side too a butcher’s platform
other side of the door a bivouac
this side too a zone of conflict
that side a death
this side a last breath

in the end one may feel it is same on either side of the door
perhaps that is the truth

or there secret places of rendezvous to the man
the courier carrying the outer world inside and
and the inner world outside

The spectacle of a dangling corpse
Even after closing the door shut, the same scene,
Man taking along with him the scene of dangling corpse
In the destructive spree both outside and inside
It is all the same whether the door is open or shut.