Why The Calm Looms? Poem by Rajendran Muthiah

I had heard the jokes of a sage
When the fair ones sat and listened to his discourse.
The fire in his eyes and heart can’t be doused.
If that witty sage maintains dead silence
I will be in dread to seek his blessings.

For a man who rode his bike
in busy, crowded roads with traffic jams,
accidents, boxing between the drivers,
chain-snatchings, ambulances with wailing sirens, …,
it would be stunning to ride his bike
in an empty, calm, desolate roads of the city.

If the billowy sea which pulls in the youths
goes calm without roars and grunts,
fright grips me and I fear to dip my feet
in the salty, receding waves.

A violent man must be violent.
If he keeps his mouth and limbs in ‘Silent Mode’,
fear strikes in my mind. When tsunami occurs,
if the birds do not chirp, dogs fail to bark,
trees are not fallen and people watch Cricket,
words will fail to clothe my thoughts
and I will be frozen in fear.