A Dream Of Civilization Poem by Vidya Pandarinath

The weary sceptic Ego rather overslept
In the wilderness like Rip Van Winkle;
Things have changed and lost all form,
Nay, shapes and structures of colossal norm
Have come down sans a warming tinkle;
Arid haze pervades the vale cleft -
The distorted splinters of the lost world!

Blown up giant Saurians and creatures eerie
Have run about and vanished hind the rocks,
Up hill, the bipeds dance round the prey,
Yond the mark, form the open field-fray;
Echoes clang of swords and gunstocks,
Clouds form droning metal birds fiery:
A shroud of smoke envelopes all devastation!

Darkness slowly creeps in here:
Life is paralysed, voice rendered mute and still;
And Yond the horizon tall structures vie
Pointing like spikes to the infinite sky;
The Past is all lost in the fossil
The New - born one, cold and hard, does peer
Through the air of dense, frenzied anxiety!




** (Note: The poem has abc cba d rhyming and has a surrealistic touch.It is a poem intended to describe modern man's conceptual evaluation of human progress in 'civilization' through the ages, including the Wars.The question remains as to whether man has intrinsically changed, despite his so called technological innovations and progress - Vidya Pandarinath, ..author)