These days I close my eyes a lot

And see beloved places;

Walkers down the river bank

Show home in open faces.

Light that fades over the lake,

Like a soft, woollen receding,

Recalls the warp of innocence,

That weaves a cloth of healing.

I see cities turn to dust,

And the oceans rise to sink

Great monuments of cleverness

As offal offering.

Elders long since dead and gone

Beckon from a glen in the heart;

I think they will be there in love

As my hour comes to depart.

I did not wish away the world

While I lived among its shards

I did what I could for  love,

In broken and bleeding yards.

But now, as millions carry on

The fight against the dragon,

My eyes shut all on their own,

Sighting a far-away wagon.


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Badri Raina is a well-known commentator on politics, culture and society. His columns on the Znet have a global following. Raina taught English literature at the University of Delhi for over four decades and is the author of the much acclaimed Dickens and the Dialectic of Growth. He has several collections of poems and translations. His writings have appeared in nearly all major English dailies and journals in India.

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