Myriad images run past me And words dangle teasingly betwixt shut-eyes. I capture them within my fist And open it only to discover It long since escaped me unwarrantedly. I try to hear the night’s stillness Feel the soothing breeze on my face I try to admire the distant auburn hills Take a walk around the dew sprinkled garden… But all fail to get me going. I let myself wander aimlessly Across the ever so erratic wind And in matter of minutes I visit Both ends of existence; heaven and hell, I slay the infernal beast; I dance with the angels But once again I lose my way somewhere in between. I put on my uniform and pick up my gun And shoot down every evil soul prying over my nation. A sense of tragedy beckons me next And for the mere fancy of it, I kill myself! Even that doesn’t end the journey. Spirituality overcomes me next and I search for my father First across the vast kingdom of heaven And then within the entrails of my own soul. I ponder over the essence of religion And dwell upon the truth about ‘after-life’… End up shrugging my shoulders! I lift my shiny sword and bow to my king, And of course, the inevitable farewell kiss For my fair lady-love. (And now should she be the princess?) I gallop away towards the battleground But where the blazing stallion leads me, even I don’t know! Fast-forwarded an aeon, I look at the society surrounding me With optimism in one eye and cynicism in the other. I hear the politician’s promises and question his beliefs; ‘Hypocritical democracy’ or ‘democratic hypocrisy’? I feel the pain of every impoverished and hungered soul But fail to express it to my liking. Ultimately I end up digging myself again In the pages of an old anthology. I browse through Emily; the metaphors escape me. Wordsworth follows but I turn over; far too dandy Shakespeare; but iambs scare me…perhaps sometime else! I close the book and go off to sleep Aware that clichés defeated me again!