Narcissuses Poem by Madathil Rajendran Nair

They sat on either side
Of the walkway
Dozing catatonics
Fixated to smart phone screens
Some happy, some unhappy
With their own clumsy selfies

In saturnine pose
Curled up
Like Narcissus of yore
Enamored by his own image
On the placid waters of a pool

As crumbling walkers
Walked and walked
To distant health hidden
Somewhere on receding horizons
Earphones plugged
Into their ears
Looks dazed into yonder skies
Unaware of what was on
Around the walking streak
Listening to music
Or what amused
A beloved's chirp
Hymns, spiritual burp

A world lost to technology
Sound and sight
Sans any soul
Inner abode or eye

People of straw
Like a summer drizzle
Who can't a world make
Abounding on the outside
That, alas, has no inside
Losing themselves to the tricks
Of the stealthy seductress
Technological advance

Or is it all wrong?
Is this the way species evolve?
Darwin may have the last laugh

These zombies may at last
Evolve and long last
In a scenario we can't forecast
A lotos land of the lost
Where it is always afternoon
With no night or forenoon
As flowers in full bloom
God, please give them the Moon