This Life Today: A Sonnet

The first test of a hydrogen bomb known as “Ivy Mike” as photographed from the Pacific Ocean atoll of Enewetak in 1952. (U.S. Air Force via Reuters, file)

Oh! Modern Man, I lament for thee,
For whence had we been led astray;
What has brought us to our knees,
To crawl, so blind, and lose our way?
While Presidents, Prime Ministers, Heads of States,
Hold our lives, by the ends of twines,
Dangling above the abysmal gates,
While they play chess, the drunken swines.
By the brook of time, our shoulders quiver,
Violent in this sadness, weak,
And the sickle of doom, awaits to sever,
Our final ties, our hopes so bleak.

Oh! look yon, the sky darkens now,
The sickle falls and we quietly bow.

Unni Nambiar (Sometime between ’86-’90 before the end of the cold war)