RIDIMA SHARMA - MID-TERM ASSIGNMENT

WAYS OF READING

1. POEMS WITH LINE-BREAKS

SEPTEMBER 19^th

September 19^th.  Are you sure,
you are just a date?
Or a devil’s messenger, who
every year, decides my fate.

I never noticed your presence
earlier, you were just another day.
No important agendas
nor a special someone’s birthday.

Until you decided to take
revenge for my ignorance.
2015 it was, I still
dread its remembrance.

I somehow passed through
your first attack in this chase.
Heaviest it was, I admit,
still rubbed it off as just a phase.

2016. The thought of you
coming back again but new.
I tried to focus on the brighter side,
only to fall again, thanks to you.

By the third time,
your motives became clear.
It was 2017 and like you wanted,
I was already in fear.

This time, you were not
satisfied with just emotional pain.
A variety from your plate,
That accident I met with, because of the rain.

Is it only me? No
one else receives your special care?
You arrive again in 2018, by now
I decided to have a fight which is fair.

But you come up every year
with a new and improved way.
You play cruel jokes on me,
and All I can play is Coldplay.

One way or the other,
you only want my destruction.
I wonder who is the one,
that gives you such instructions.

Good Lord! I have become superstitious,
courtesy, the fear that you create.
September 19^th.  Are you sure,
you are just another date?



(I have used the Surprise element in this poem where enjambment in lines like, 'Is it only me? No' create two different meanings for two different lines.)

OLD SOUL

Folktales from the
16^th and 17^th centuries,

Music that is 

now considered obsolete,

Paintings which are not
termed as modern,

Morals which possibly
might never return,

Buildings dating back
to the Mughal period,

Poetry that comes
with meanings in myriads,

Birds which are
not easily found,

Places which no more
exist around,

Stories that are
known as History,

Everything which has
a sense of mystery,

The fire that turns
wood into coal,

In this world of newness,
all these are solace for an old soul.

(The Speed, Surprise and Sound elements are used in this poem. The enjambment breaks the flow and creates an element of suspense, which is then completed by the following line with the rhyming of words.)

2. POEMS WITH REPETITION

THE FRONT CAMERA IN MY PHONE

I think I know myself better,
But it’s true that you know me the best.

The reasons behind all my actions,
or the problems which I never share.
From the real face behind those filters,
to the ‘candids’ that are not actually ‘fair’.

I think I know myself better,
But it’s true that you know me the best.

The thoughts behind that smile,
or the subsequent panic attacks.
From the dimples that hide the pimples,
to the reality that sometimes smacks.

I think I know myself better,
But it’s true that you know me the best.

I look at you to find myself,
a perfect angle that can keep my denial intact.
So now I deliberately avoid the mirror,
clearly your tricks are better than its fact.

I think I know myself better,
But it’s true that you know me the best.

TODAY

The last time I checked,
‘today’s’ date was something else.

Today, when I checked about ‘today’,
it wasn’t the same.

Not just the date, but everything
that constitutes ‘today’.

Grammar says every day
is a new today.

As long as it is
there in ‘present’,

I can’t help but wonder
maybe because of this,

every ‘today’ that goes with
the present to the past,

never comes back
to the future.

So many ‘todays’ have gone,

to create the ‘today’ of present.

Some have gone in vain,
some of them struggled.

To make an impact
on the upcoming todays.

Somehow, it all comes down
to the ‘today’ that you live in.

The ‘today’ that represents
all the previous ‘todays’.

Is it really important
to have a ‘today’?

Or does the concept of ‘today’
only exists to complete,

the Venn diagram of
‘yesterday-today-tomorrow’?

As much as I love
living in ‘today’,

I sometimes miss
the ‘today’ of my past,

and I definitely think a lot
about the ‘today’ of my future.

The more I try
to understand ‘today’,

the more I waste
my today.

For today is a feeling,
which we experience new every day.

And yet don’t understand,
why is it called ‘today’.

3. DESCRIPTIVE POEMS

WHY DO I CARE?

I see you every day,

as I pass through this gate.

A gate that doesn’t look

like it’s in a perfect shape.

This shape of yours makes me think,

what was it that ruined your state?

A State-of-the-Art structure, were you?

Or just another shelter to stay…

‘Can you stay here?’ Your strong gaze

questions me every day.

A day will come I hope, when

I will ignore this curiosity that remains.

The remains of an old building, after all,

is something about which I should not care.

Why do I care? Maybe I should

break into this gate once and for all,

so, all these intriguing questions,

I can put to an end.

TRAUMA OF BEING A SMARTPHONE

When my sweaty hands in the aftermath of an anxiety attack,
manhandle your smooth body in the anticipation of a stupid unworthy text,
Don’t you feel harassed?

When I slide my fingers on your front from one point to another,
sadistically enjoying your struggles with different apps at the same time,
Don’t you feel harassed?

When I play percussion tunes with my knuckles on your backside ruthlessly beating you,
without taking into consideration, your limits and the purpose of your existence,
Don’t you feel harassed?

When I don’t care about your needs and requirements of a proper power charge,
and selfishly use you for my own pleasure, because of which you almost die a lot of times,
Don’t you feel harassed?

When I exploit your powers as a smartphone by putting money, metro card, love letters and what not, clinging to your back inside the cover, making you look excessively fat & heavy,
Don’t you feel harassed?

When I am currently relying on you so much by writing on you in a not-so-conventional way,
objectifying your ‘sacrifices’ for the sake of getting good grades in a mid-term assignment!
Don’t you feel harassed?

{ P.S. - If you do, then I am already dead and have transported myself into a parallel universe where gadgets can feel!
If you don’t, that’s great! Let me take a selfie on that note :) }