The Dawn Poem by Shriram Iyengar

A single caw flew across the trees,
Whispering its way through darkness.
I watched the pale light fall,
Upon barren branches and withered leaves
Waiting for a dropp to quench slaked throats.
It is an unusual morning, I thought,
To be asleep.
I walked through the lonely street,
Snaking endlessly through graveled earth.
Stillness in motion, a silent echo.
The corners dropped off the edges
Of a darker horizon surrounded by brick walls;
Walls that were coated in ivory white,
Stained by a sanguine red.
With every foot my feet covered,
I found a foot more waiting to be covered
Crunches screamed from beneath the earth
As I trampled upon skulls and bones.
Life slept around me and snored
I just couldn’t take it anymore.
So I ran.
I ran from freedom, and the oppression it promised;
I ran from duty and worship;
I passed knowledge and wisdom,
As they waited at the next bend.
From virtue’s honest opinion,
To philosophy’s truthful deceit,
I ran, to forget memory
That lasted longer than the meet.
I ran past faces of truth, of sorrow
Hatred and peace.
I ran at the speed of darkness
That creeps across men’s souls.
I could feel the wind cursing at my ears
I heard its deathly wail.
It coursed through my pale veins
Swimming in my blood, to reach my heart
Which repeated the cry.
The echo was louder.
Till the end I never knew
Where I was running to.
When upon a hill I came,
Dried and dusted with red barrenness.
Soil red as blood, seeping out of earthen pores
Bleeding a dark hidden secret
Waiting to be unearthed.
I waited and waited,
I prayed the prayers I pray,
Wailed and sighed at the day;
I cursed the curses I knew
Till language no more came to my aid.
And I could no more curse or pray.
I lay there, silent and still,
Like the dawn that crept upon the hill.
And painted the red earth around me
Rich golden brown.
But the stains on my hands still seemed red,
Like the sun that rose
Upon the dead.
MY eyes saw no more sights
And wetted my skin with tears.
I had lost my world to a fight
A fight I always feared.
I had lost and lost badly,
Everything that I had loved so madly.
But there was nothing called love anymore,
That could soften the fire at my core.
So I let that fire out to burn,
And stoked the fire even more
Till it burned the dark core;
And nothing remained.
Not the fire, nor me.
Everything was ash,
And the dawn was grey.