Of Spiders and Insects
- Deep from the Soul -
K. Radhakumar *
I have never seen
Nor bothered to think
How spiders spin webs.
A cobweb!
A concrete geometric design
Hung in a dusty corner
Between potted plants of my kitchen garden!
What a wonderful symmetry!
It has struck me dumb
For I have seen, have seen
Both life and death in it;
The spider, and the insect caught in the cobweb.
Well, the making of the world is beyond me.
The predicament of an insect
Caught in the cobweb!
I do not know if
It appreciates the inevitability of death,
The meaning of life
Against the backdrop of death.
I also do not know if
It had any say
In the matter of being caught in the cobweb.
A speeding car!
A drunken car is
About to knock down a child
Right in front of me.
I know I cannot possibly save the child
And I shut my eyes.
Why?
I shut my eyes
And try to get some sleep.
I do not like to see
War, prostitutes, rapists,
Murderers, pick pockets, shop lifters,
I do not like to plant explosives
In crowded places in the name of terrorism.
I shut myself off
From the world
To live a life –
My life.
I am sick to death
Of all the ugliness of life.
The hollowness of life, and strangely enough,
The incompleteness of life haunts me
And who says
Life is rounded off with death.
Sometimes I feel
I am being caught in a sort of cobweb,
A cobweb
Deep, unending and encompassing!
The wonder of wonders is
I am not disturbed
By the fall of the yellow leaf from the tree
And no cobweb will be its bed.
* Poem written by K. Radhakumar which was published at Hueiyen Lanpao (English Edition)
This poem was webcasted on May 06, 2014.
* Comments posted by users in this discussion thread and other parts of this site are opinions of the individuals posting them (whose user ID is displayed alongside) and not the views of e-pao.net. We strongly recommend that users exercise responsibility, sensitivity and caution over language while writing your opinions which will be seen and read by other users. Please read a complete Guideline on using comments on this website.