No thoroughfare!

 

There are roads that people take

And fold and keep for their own sake.

Paved inward in fluid stones,

They ride where your street-view blinds.

 

Shadow trees, nor signal lights, nor

watchful statues dot their path.

Raging mobs don’t invade them,

Barricades don’t spring on them,

These are roads that people take

And fold and keep for private use.

 

Last night’s ghosts don’t pry on them

Sidle there just nettled lies.

Rusting words don’t distend them, where

afterglow of winter lasts.

Bulldozers don’t approach them

to build their temple lit in fear.

 

These are roads that people take

And fold and keep for their own sake.

 

Secret pipes don’t pass through them,

Scorching screams don’t rip through them,

Probing eyes won’t park on them,

These are roads that people take when

world explodes in bluster bombs and

Silence grows on backyard walls.

Refugees don’t mistake them for

Pathways mapped to somewhere sane.

 

They don’t lead you out of harm,

Through a place that smells like calm.

They don’t have any shelters right for

days that look like fading skies.

 

There are roads that people keep,

out of bounds to their own truth.

There are roads that people take

And fold and keep for Heaven’s sake.

Sajan PK believes in the magnetism of the word and does Communications for a living. Born

into a family of schoolteachers in Kerala, South India, he started writing prose and poetry, coinciding with the start of his career in Media. He was the first runner-up of a blogging contest conducted by The British Council in 2013 and was on the longlist of the Jaipur Literature Festival Blogging Contest 2020. He is currently the India Head of Corporate Communications at a global network and technology company, and lives in Chennai with his wife and daughter.