‘Fishes tipple in the deep
birds wanton in the air’**
they know not the wayward reckonings
of dank regret or care
*
I go to where I should not go
where not even angels dare
asking for such indemnities
of a wasted life I swear
*
It is a publind universe
unjust grim and bare
quelling the quaking babblings
of weak and wan despair
*
It is a purblind universe
unjust, grim, and bare
where every hope is a feckless dupe
and every gift a snare
** I’ve borrowed these two ethereal phrases from Richard Lovelace, circa C.E. 1642
[©R.Kanth, 2025]
Professor Rajani Kanth, is Author of Coda, A Day in the Life, Expiations, and Farewell to Modernism</em>