Sonnet Of Wingless Humans Poem by Uma nair

The sparrows in my bamboo bush know nothing

As dawn breaks they only feel the light growing


While they feed on rice grains, they know not
That in this age of corona virus, it seems as if life
Has taken away from us humans, her wings

The world has moved into another gear

From the corners of happy wanderings

We are stationed within sleepy spaces of the lockdown

In the silence of death's sound-tapes of scattered human dreams
We are standing at the traffic lights of biological purgatory


As Beethoven's 9th symphony wails through the night
The chirp of my sparrows keep me living
I'm waiting like a wilted flower, for an angel
Who will descend and carry me, a wingless human.