The Countdown-12 Poem by Smrui Ranjan Mohanty

THE COUNTDOWN-12

Life is poignantly beautiful
It is poignant
If you want to make too much out of it
It is beautiful
If you are satisfied with yourself
With whatever comes your way

Is it so easy
To accept life as it is
To be with its ebb and tide
Changing colours and fading beauty?
How painful is it
To come out of one's comfort zone
To leave one's love
When one needs her the most?

How frightening is it
When the navigator loses the rudders in the mid-sea?
With the weather getting violent and virulent
The man of the moment raises doubts
In his ability and expertise
To swim across the boisterous sea
Which he has done many a time.
Finding time and tide not in his side
The hero of many a battle
Silently withdraws from the scene
Defeated and resigned
Leaves himself
At the mercy and caprices of fate
To live in the most ignominious way

How painful is it
To face life
With an aching heart and mind?
How difficult to run that extra mile
When you know the goal ahead never exists?

How tough to motivate oneself
When you know
You are only moving towards a blind end?
With none behind
None to your left
None to your right
And none ahead
Life ends
In a lonely man's lone lane
In a deserted, solitary isle

Smruti Ranjan Mohanty
India
12.11.2022