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Daily Selected Poems : Harinder Cheema

Harinder Cheema | Saturday, 21 August 2021 | Print

Harinder Cheema

The Last Letter

The only son of an old mother

A soldier, posted at a distant border

Would think of his loved ones before going to sleep

That was the only time the braveheart felt weak

As he thought of his mother, frail and fragile,

A solemn expression replaced the smile

But he also felt glad that he would soon be with her

And thinking that he started writing a letter

“Oh mother dear! I will soon come to thee

Your son is now a sentry

Guarding the borders of the motherland

From morning to evening in the desert heat, I stand

How I wish to sleep in the shade of your lap!

I am no more than old, “naughty chap”

And then shyly, he enquires about his beloved’s well being

Going all red, thinking of the pretty young thing

He promises his mother that he would muster courage to propose to her

And writing that, he kisses the letter

Then he folds the letter thinking of his home

And puts it in the front pocket of his uniform

Excitedly, he runs to post it the next day

But gets caught in the enemy shelling on the way

As a fountain of blood gushes from his chest

The last letter gets buried with him in the desert sand close to his breast.

………………………………………………….

The Soul’s Salon

A visit to a beauty salon made me feel so good
For some money they pampered me as much as they could
I walked out more confident to face the world
But then I thought, Is my soul as confident to face the Lord?
Is there any Salon for the soul of mine?
Where it can be made beautiful to merge with the divine!
So I walked straight into a graveyard
The dead bodies dumping yard
I cried to see the bodies reduced to mud and dust
And walked out purging my soul of all greed and lust
Occasionally I visit the Soul’s Salon
And it is not death but a meaningless life that I mourn
To make it meaningful, I just sow the right seeds
The barren stretch of life becomes fertile with good deeds
And my soul gets the ethereal glow and shine
All set to enter the Lord’s shrine

……………………………………………………..

The God’s Guide

It was pitch dark as I was walking on the road
The street was very quiet and everything was in a silent mode
I crossed a temple and to my surprise
I saw Lord Jesus standing outside
I knew there was a church close by
But right in front of the church, I saw Lord Buddha talking to a passerby
I panicked and thought that the Gods were confused
Probably because it was dark as the bulbs were fused
They were not standing in front of their rightful place assigned to them by the man
So to convince them, between the two Gods, I ran
They asked me to show them the way and I marched with long confident strides
They followed me closely and I became God’s guide
I showed them the roads
Leading to their respective abodes
But I wonder, why all the while
At the corner of their mouths, they had a smile?
Perhaps they thought that I was from the intelligent kind
As I was just helping the ”mankind.”
By guiding the Gods to their addresses right
As we humans like to keep even our Gods separated,
in compartments watertight

…………………………………………………

The Poor Leela

Barefoot Leela said to her mother,
“Mother, it is bad weather,
Winters are approaching soon
And you promised to get me slippers last June
My frock is also full of holes
How do you expect me to bear the cold.”
Mother told Leela , there is nothing to fear.
“You have seen seven winters dear,
And it is not the cold that scares me child,
Your three sisters due to starvation died.
And then she said in a sullen mood,
“Leela pray to the God for enough food ”
And she got up to stop the chilly winds coming in, by closing the broken door
While Leela with a chalk,
drew pictures of delicious dishes on the floor.

…………………………………………………………

THE BOOK OF LIFE

The river of thoughts flowing within me gathers the silt of knowledge
This life itself is a big book, each page a school, a college
Every day, I learn from the vastness of the sky to make my heart big
To forgive those who have wronged me and the past not dig
Each day, the birds teach me that it is more important to be free
And not to be caught in the net of temptations to acquire fame in a hurry
Each day, the fallen leaf tells me that as compost it goes back to the tree
And though, fallen from the heavens high my soul can still connect with divinity
Each day I see the caterpillar braving challenges to become a butterfly
And blessed with a complex brain, we humans complain and cry
Each day, the flowers bloom spreading fragrance and colour
But with toxic thoughts, we pollute our inner self making our life duller
Each day, I look at the mountain which tries to touch the sky
An impossible feat though it is, but I marvel as it tries
Each day you will learn something if you open your inner eyes
Your own awakening can only make you so profound and wise.