Author: Reena Saxena

Reenais the host of Reena’s Exploration Challenge.

Welcome back to another week!

I had a tough time getting a pesky fly out of the house today. In the process, I came to admire her incorrigible optimism.

Here’s a poem by Lisel Mueller

IMMORTALITY
In Sleeping Beauty’s castle
the clock strikes one hundred years
and the girl in the tower returns to the world.
So do the servants in the kitchen,
who don’t even rub their eyes.
The cook’s right hand, lifted
an exact century ago,
completes its downward arc
to the kitchen boy’s left ear;
the boy’s tensed vocal cords
finally let go
the trapped, enduring whimper,
and the fly, arrested mid-plunge
above the strawberry pie,
fulfills its abiding mission
and dives into the sweet, red glaze.

As a child I had a book
with a picture of that scene.
I was too young to notice
how fear persists…

निखरा था छत पर चाँद नूरानी
आयी है याद फ़िर रात पुरानी ।१।

बिन सुलाए मुझे खुद सो गयी है
मेरे तकिये पर रात पुरानी ।२।

है क्या कोई सौदागर इसका
किस मोल बिकेगी रात पुरानी ।३।

बढ़ता जाता है ख़ुमार उतना ही
जितनी होती है रात पुरानी ।४।

क्यों नहीं भूल जाता अमित
गयी बात हुई रात पुरानी ।५।

In response to: Reena’s Exploration Challenge # 124

Inspired by Reena’s Exploration Challenge #124

Diogenes

fear-mongering from infancy
forcing acceptable behaviors
through mental scars

morals etched in deep
with vivid stories
petrifying children into submission

the fairy tales last forever
in the minds
of impressionable children

the morals passed on
lurid and shocking
mean to stifle and suppress

the stories
a warning
of unacceptability

it’s a wonder how we managed to grow up at all