Where Are The Children Gone! Poem by Bishnupada Sethi

Where are the children gone!
The play fields are empty.
The elderly people aren't visible in the parks.
Few rodents run helter-skelter
In the hideouts the lovers'd prefer.

Few are seen buying and selling.
Deserted is the market place.
They seem in the grip of a fear uncertain.
No one is greeting, no one is smiling-
Another human may be carrying the virus.
From everywhere the usual crowd is gone.
Non-existent are all exchanges of emotions.

The roads in front of my house appear wide and long.
No vehicles are at sight.
The silence is eerie-
Seldom the sirens of ambulance puncturing it.

A great grief, panic and deep pain-
Seems looming all over.
The morning chants from the nearby temple are missing.
All are huddling in their havens.

We are aware of
All the ongoing human efforts.
Sooner those will yield results
As such a crisis isn't the first ever
The mankind faced.

Yet, without any effort
I kneel down-
Surrendering before all the might
Of unseen, all pervading being,
Pray with hope in the heart
We may be saved.