Author: Reena Saxena

Untouched books crowded his shelves, shiny leather spines and faded first editions, meticulously dusted and never read.  The books were just illusions to impress others, and they made his life bearable, because they impressed his friends.  He had no intention of ever reading any of them, as knowing too much would take away his individualism, and his sense of style.  He was as phony as a three-dollar bill, but what nobody knew was that the book shelves were hiding a secret passage to his panic room.  He was not sorry for all of the lies that he feed to the press and he hoped that Trump would exonerate him one day.

They finally caught up to Julian Assange and his long-time friend Pamela Anderson felt he would not survive an extradition from the U.K. to the U.S.  He breached his bail in June 2012 and took refuge in the Embassy…

Canvas - azure sky.
Clouds-illusionary shapes.
Bedtime-Grandma's tales.

Copyright @ Goutam Dutta

Reena’s Exploration Challenge #150

Inspired by Reena’s Exploration Challenge #150 – Illusions

in our private world
free to be

but in public
we disguise ourselves

masks worn
don’t reflect actuality

hidden behind facades
in plain sight

reality is best served
with illusions

people don’t have patience
for the truth

or we don’t have the time
to speak it

to callous beings
wearing their own screen

Everyone in the street is doing their bit. At least I think they are.

We are all staying at home. We are limiting our going out to the necessary times, and when we do, we say we are wearing our masks to protect each other and ourselves.

Though the other day I ventured to the shopping centre to go to the supermarket and thinking I needed to be doing to right thing in wearing a mask as the people in charge of everyday life were now telling us, mask-wearing was considered a necessary step. But I seemed to be the lone wearer.

Maybe I thought I heard about the mask-wearing as not many people in the shopping centre were wearing them.

Now admittedly masks are not the most comfortable of things to wear, but I thought in light of public safety we should all be doing our bit.

And then…

Reena is the host of Reena’s Exploration Challenge

PROMPT #150

ILLUSIONS

Let it be a theme for the week’s writings. It may not necessarily be about privacy, but the various illusions we live under, and which actually make life bearable. Knowing too much would debilitate our sense of individualism, independence, achievement or glory. It is actually a happy bubble we live in.

~*~

Plucking petals from a daisy

Chanting softly under her breath

He loves me, he loves me not… on and on

The reality is writ large on the wall

Yet she chooses to ignore it to live in

That illusion she has created for herself

A comfortable place where she can ignore

The unpleasantness of daily life and hold on to

Her belief that all is well, that her beloved

Dotes on her as much as she loves him

Closing our eyes to what can hurt us

We…

Reena’s Exploration Challenge #149

PROMPT #149

“How far does optimism go?”