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Words are Ghosts


Words lost their souls and turned into ghosts
            that haunted the pulpits and public places.
The King is a great orator who conjures up
            paradises of soulless words and gimmicks.

Verbal ghosts are hungry for blood
            that was shed in the dark alleys of bygone days.
They travel on witches’ brooms between
            Rama’s Treta yuga and the Mahatma’s Kali yuga,
Their forked tongues spitting poison
            presumed as nectar by fortune-seekers,
            the sexless witches impotent to make love.

They make war,
They make places of worship,
Where the gods are always hungry,
            creatures of infinite hunger,
            they swallow love and truth;
They are gods of words,
            words turned ghosts,
                        ghosts that haunt a nation.








Comments

  1. Anita SabatJanuary 31, 2015 at 12:40 PM

    Hope we make better use of words. So that we have friendly ghosts to better our nation :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 31, 2015 at 6:47 PM

      A better nation can be created with words provided the speaker has a vision.:)

      Delete
  2. MeenalSonalJanuary 31, 2015 at 2:14 PM

    Words used in proper way can avoid swords. Thanks for sharing a word on words :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 31, 2015 at 6:48 PM

      Words are the tools of the human species. Civilised if

      Delete
  3. UnknownJanuary 31, 2015 at 11:34 PM

    These days words haunt me the most. Words have gone diabolic in today's world. They can kill.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 1, 2015 at 7:45 AM

      Words can heal too. My dream is for that India which Tagore described: "where words come from the depth of the heart."

      Delete
    2. UnknownFebruary 1, 2015 at 8:52 AM

      People from my generation (mostly) speak some random rubbish all the time. They speak I don't know what and why. Sometimes,I get a headache. If people are getting to these levels I don't know when Tagore's words would get realized.

      Delete
    3. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 1, 2015 at 12:28 PM

      I understand that, Namrata. I'm sometimes shocked by the behaviour of some of my own students: more by the arrogance than the ignorance.

      Delete
  4. KalpanaFebruary 1, 2015 at 12:01 AM

    I like the lines 'Verbal ghosts are hungry for blood' best.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 1, 2015 at 7:47 AM

      Ignorance fed by our leaders coupled with instinctive hatred is the cause of bloodthirst.

      Delete

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