Escape Poem by Anil Kumar Panda

The candle flame flickers like
A lost soul about to leave the body
That is in commotion to shake it off;
Dark owl hoots from roof tops
To signal the sky to send the chariot
And clouds to come with drums;
The feet are shackled with chain
Of time and locked with fate;
The faint wailings echo against
The walls of mud and twigs,
Thickly plastered with cow dung;
The caged parrot chants the prayer
In its sharp tone to justify the journey;
The moon stares suspiciously through
The broken roof where the spider has
Already knitted the web as if to
Catch the little whiff of air struggling
To escape the slender throat;
The story is written in silence;
All bonds are made of nothing
But desires and hopes and infatuations;
And take no time to vanish when
The crows’ shed their black feathers
On the skeleton of a wall.