ODDS OF A SEASON

ODDS OF A SEASON   Counting days, the year withered Dust, dryness and heat returned Leaves fell off the tree in the yard The shade it offered went with it Along with our daily rendezvous Our chatting season also ended The arena is empty, friends, no more   Looking back at the year gone by I felt the cold hand of desertion With an overwhelming presence Pointing to the signs of the season Written all over the walls of my house With black and white chalks of clay I could only take heart with what I saw   Desertion is not only being left one By the ones you love and hold dear It is the way you feel when people die Lonely graves affirm, we see them not

Your bankrupt boss tells you, it is finished

Pocket picked holes and ran dry of coins And food, not for mouth, only for the eyes   Desertion is found in broken marriages When differences become too much to bear Your landlord wakes you up one morning Without quarrels, to give you quit notice And with no cash and no where else to go With a sick mother who goes into coma When the sugar level goes low unnoticed   Desertion has many faces, shades and forms

The adverse virus victims, on the row, can tell

What discrimination does to their dear lives

And you ask, why a part of our human nature Seems to forget the early and good old days When these people were at the centre stage With men around them, looking for spaces   Like banana pills, we throw them away Like old clothes we do not need anymore We heap them and toss into the refuge can When travails of life fling, here and there Faith opens her hand, like with Job of old There is time for everything, high and low What is yours will return, when it is even