'When our minds want to languish in the  forever

And, our souls in the search for the elusive truth,'

Why then are we so starkly engrossed in the 'Now'

That is simply and quite, awfully, uncouth.

Has the present not taken us some way, away

From the pursuit of the purpose and meaning of life,

Have we not sacrificed at the altar of ambition and greed

Our happiness and, sadly, embraced strife

But, the conundrum shall be there forever

Should we live in the 'now' or look behind and ahead?

For, what is now is fleeting and no more, ephemeral

The minute to come is the future, the one past long gone dead.

Being mortal is not easy, that sword above merciless

Living today is, sadly, shorn of peace and calm,

No shelters of solitude, only refugee camps

What balm can the waiting for hurtling missiles provide

What balm?

Can we return to those times of harmony and love

Of simple lives simply led and happy times,

When who you were mattered but not

As long as you sang with others, nursery rhymes

When laughter shared was indeed divine

‘Cause you laughed with others, not at them,

When the world was not yours and mine

But ours, and man not stone the real gem.

(The author is a businessman and part-time poet. He can be contacted at ashok.sawhny06.poems@gmail.com)