(Public Submission)
Theme: Optimism in a Pandemic
Artist Statement:
This poem is a tribute the great soldiers called as health workers who have worked round the clock during this pandemic, around the much feared COVID patients with no complaint. It is a brief moment of appreciation, understanding and admiration for them.
BREATHE
Burning and steaming, both my eyes on fire
Sleepless nights and days, again and around
My sweat seeps through my mask, stuck in the neck
Fresh sweat from the neck, like a mid-way shower
Doctor’s coat dancing somewhere, me inside this horror suit
Takes a decade to put on, more to undo
Lives dancing behind the screens, men, women, young and old
Never before ever have cursed my choice, helpless, just watch
Lives pulled out from the vents, fresh lives fed in
Feeble hopes, incomplete dreams slowly empowers the dying eyes
Forgotten are the smell of my child, the skin of my love
Debating and failing, no guts yet to be near them
My pain, failure, their grief and their beloved’s
Slowly clears away, I see the smiling face of the survivors…