Lullaby
By Dr Basheer Ahmed Khan
Garden Grove, CA
I write this lullaby in an era where electronic gadgets keep the youth awake in virtual reality so that they are oblivious to the realities of their own lives. I write this lullaby in an era when marijuana and opioids are doled out to those who go insomniac after waking up to the realities they face. I write this lullaby not to put them to sleep but to wake them up. Lullaby to wake up may be an oxymoron. A world of paradoxes and lies has no escape from oxymorons. This lullaby is deliberately kept long to keep its readers awake and not to put them to sleep.
I am asked to sing a lullaby.
To those intoxicated by their wealth.
Live in their luxurious homes,
enjoying pleasures of their happy lives.
They are oblivious
To the suffering of people,
living a real life.
I am asked to sing a lullaby for them.
I am asked to sing a lullaby
To those deprived souls
with their shattered dreams
Confused about the role
they should play without a scream
They dance to their own tap and rap
When the thrill dies down
they consume hash
In hope of finding their lost dreams
They go into eternal slumber
without a scream.
I am asked to sing a lullaby for them.
I am asked to sing a lullaby
To the restless souls
agitated by the injustice.
Without Justice they see
No prospect for internal peace
Imbued with hope san any power
March in streets before halls of power
With hatred for those who live in towers
Embrace shackles seeking freedom
Their soul finds no rest
till they break them
invoking their spirits, which is no fun.
I am asked to sing a lullaby for them.
I am asked to sing a lullaby
To those who have lost their spirit
Fighting for change
in every home and in every street
They trust the power of their might
Which they lack, to make things right
Turning the homes and towns into rubble
Where their families live
a life, which is deplorable
To these empty stomach
And their disturbed minds
I am asked to sing a lullaby
I am asked to sing a lullaby
To those who know facts
But pretend that they do not
They see no lesson in history
They have no need for any poetry
To them history is not for reading,
It is for making
They shatter monuments to history.
And replace them with their story.
I am asked to sing a lullaby for them
But yet I sing this lullaby
To give rest to my own soul
Which is tormented by
the insensitiveness of the rich,
Desperation of the deprived,
And the irrational revolutionaries
I sing this lullaby
To invoke empathy in the One
who is directing this story.
Seeking help for the deprived and depressed
And guidance to the rich who is elated
and stop the destructive revolutionaries
From dropping curtain
on this interesting story.
I sing this lullaby to wake them up.
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