Sunset

 

There was a time

When sunsets made us sad,

All the brightness of the world

Being traded for darkness

Inescapable, unredeemable

Choiceless was the path of life

 

Without wisdom of the battle scars

We would not realise

The calming succour

That was the dark of Night,

As the soul was made to stare

And ask questions to the starry gods

 

Now, can there be anything calmer

Than the dying skies of dusk?

Peace descends as the fatigued sun

Withers in the cool

Of a calming sea

Heralding, the day’s fight is over

 

Our toes dig deeper

In the last warmth hid in talcum sands

No longer like a blazing sun

We have become stars

One of many, countless

Lost in the scatter of the Milky Way

 

 Our pointillist canvas exists as a whole

While we are happy

To be pointless stars

At peace, listening

To the serenade of the galaxies

Rumbling in the waves

 

(Once in a while, the seas glow

In bioluminescence,

Fireflies flicker in the forests

Reminding us who we could be

But we have forgiven ourselves,

We are happy to drown in faded starlight)

 

Those few hours of darkness

Its all there is –

To heal the sunburns that always be

Sunset in the sands

All on our own, aloof, quiet

And a lighthouse for mortal company

 

There are no more questions now

To the starry gods,

They know too -

In the sunset’s acceptance

Of our insignificance

Somewhere we have become the infinite…

 

06^th July, 2024

 

(Inspired by the blazing sunset at Lakshmanpur Beach, followed by absolute darkness that descended upon Neil Island)