Neither birth is our choice
Nor is the death
They are all accidents
Intentional or Unintentional
Serendipitous it is
Two brothers losing life together
In a car, perhaps they loved
Driving towards a destination
They never reached
A mother died while making
Her final cuppa of tea
Which perhaps she
Never got a chance to sip
A father too died years ago
While waiting for his evening tea
Which he too never got a chance to sip
It all happens in a fraction of a second
That’s all it takes to breathe in first time
Or to exhale for the last time
I hear a piercing wail of a new born
Perhaps still missing
The safe cuccoon of the womb
I hear the lament of an adult
Watching his mother’s hearse
And then we get the news of passing
Of young footballers who faced odds
But with talent that got recognised
They could afford a Lamborghini
Whose tires unfortunately gave up
Just like both the engines
Of that ill fated aircraft
Which crashed not too long ago
On the roof of a medical college
Whose students deaths
Never got counted
Just like the deaths of innocents
Which have fatigued and numbed the world
Does million have an extra zero?
We no longer count
The unaccountables
We know and accept
Death as fate
Inevitably Inevitable
It all depends on the moment (and nation)
Where you are born
Or destined to be
Or the place you are going to
Or where you are coming from
I see the news of a white student passing
In a white rich country
While looking for that dear Asian kid
Who died while trying to beat
The unprecedented heat
A river waves took him away
Then they tell me of passing
Of someone whose lungs gave away
Who chose cigarettes over his odds
We all are the risk takers
Our births are risks
Life is a risk
And so is our fight for it
And against it
Without choice we are here
Living, breathing it all in
The foul rotting smell
Fills our nostrils
Along with wafts of fresh fragrances
Of the new bloom
That’s how it is perhaps
Inevitably Inevitable
Both Life and death
A fraction of a second
A breath separating the two
A fraction of a second
It takes for the bombs to explode
Or a sniper to shoot
Those ill-fated hungry children
Who didn’t choose to be born
On that ill-fated land
Whose fate was decided
In the name of the imagined god
Gods who are yet to prove their existence
Do show up for these births and deaths
Between blessing little ones
In the name of God
And absolving the dead of their sins
The priests of the land thrive
While labs toil away
For that perfect elixir
To save us from ageing
And dying
An actress too died
While trying to be
Young and relevant
In a show business
How bizzare it is
How inevitably Inevitable
It all seems to be
Living ones getting on with it .
Winging it with AI, drones,
Botox and meditation
Adding new iterations
All in a circle
Of life and death
I stare at my nearly dead plant
Hit by the morning newspaper missile
Symbolic isn’t it?
The newspaper that carries
The news of death, wars and funerals
Nearly killed my plant
Inevitably Inevitable
Accident it is all…
We still cannot fully comprehend
That one grand design accident – Big bang
And then how down the line
Intelligently stupid
Life evolved
On this blue planet in the universe
A life that tries to comprehend itself
And has also turned upon itself
In a suicidal self sabotage
Inevitably Inevitable?
The rigged game goes on
So does poetry…
