Memories are, mostly, short-lived
Guess nights cover days well,
Sleep, too, it’s part plays, of course
Dreams/nightmares their stories tell.

Dreams fade away, lost in the mist of time
Nightmares, haunt eternally
Perhaps, to remind us, to keep alive
Those terrifying moments of terror, purposefully.

Memories, must also have a good reason
To be with us all the way,
Why else would they clutter the mind
And, not just fly away.

Tales of woe and scènes lying bare
Tragedy, beyond all compare,
Where is the good in the bad, ever
Only, Evil lives there.

‘Tis the memories that are happy and light of spirit
That are not indelibly etched in the mind
For, they need not be there as “caution”
‘Cause, happiness is never left behind.

‘Tis the ones that torch the soul within
Embers to burn, slowly, painfully, for life,
The ones that wrenched, the ones that drenched
That shook the earth in those moments of strife.

‘Tis the recall factor that we mustn’t forget
That helps keep alive the flame of Hope,
The imprint of tragedy is vivid and sharp
For those of us who, for example, with Partition ‘47
Had to, sadly, cope.

Lest we forget and let history repeat itself
It’s wise to think through those times, sometime,
Fond, the hope, that those hours of darkness
Bereft of all that’s sublime,
Never Return.

All was ablaze, bizarre the scenes
More on the roofs than in the trains,
A wild Man akin to the jungle boar
Everyone loses, who gains.

Games played by the few
And, fooled was the Nation complete,
Tales of woe everywhere
All hearts with tears, replete.

Ne l’ubliouns pas.

There were also those infamous days of the 70’s
When we lost the citizenship of our own land,
‘Twas brutal for those who lived those years
All heads and eyes buried in the sand.

Ne l’oublions pas, lest we forget
Is why we need to, sometimes, delve into the Past,
The ugly bits, the torn fabric, the tatters
To ensure no repeat of those plays, by a different cast.

To the ‘now’, and what do we see, sadly
A world full of hypocrisy and lies,
How jarring, Peace in quest of Peace somewhere
While, Man ensures its demise.

Within and without, the same everywhere
Nature with the Devil contrives,
A world, alas, ripped apart
Who, but the insensate, thrives.

Lest We Forget, let’s remind ourselves
Of the darkest moments that we survive,
Keep in our hearts the flame of Hope lit
The desire to live, be alive.

As I write, I read of the Straits of Hormuz
Of warning shots and the like
And, then I read of regional talks to defuse tensions
And, I wonder how many worlds do I live in
All at the same time!!

It’s a Pantomime,
Lest We Forget.

(The author is a prolific poet who has over 30 poetry books to his credit. He can be reached at ashoksawhny06@gmail.com/ www.ashoksawhny.com)