Desire, a hurtling horse on hire

Man, seldom a straightforward animal, Long lost in the deserts of weariness, Wants to flee from a life of denial, Wallows no less still in piles of warm ash, And feeling hurt, he nurses hidden strife, Busy harming the self his very own With some weird philosophy of life That plunges him in world to him unknown. World’s in world-wide pain as per German tongue— Weltschmerz, modern word coined by Jean Richter, And weltanschauung, one more and also young, A vast field where the world’s lost in welter. We see pain, angst in many urchins’ eyes That beg for crumbs and still cherish a dream, A look that child's raw innocence espies Still, aims one day to claim his choicest cream. Eyes of a house-help show this no less clear Than householder’s deeply dunk in hardship, Both dream of making good, both gag a tear, None of them knows to laugh nor freely weep. Take daily grind— working in rank odour, Pitiable public passage, crowded Journeys, jostles—the rush for earning bread, The woes of world seen seldom ever ere. Take a mid-age man, ill at ease, in mime, And women, hair-dyed, face done up, pushing, Prancing, pretending having a great time, What with sad eyes, drunk or doped still showing. In false bluster, all these men and women, Unable, woes of their harsh life to change, Mock at the dangers in a disco den, And behave in ways bordering on strange, Running away from reality's face, Hiding their pain, they try hard to escape— Escape from this never-ending rat-race, Yet, cannot stop this reality's rape. The truth of truth: we all passengers are On a galloping horse on hire, Desire, Maverick, even as a movie star, Rich much as poor, all plunged in a deep mire. Fortunate few that might face no travails— The rich Americans— spending today, Which, for long years their progeny might pay, Who’d survive this rat race that all us ails? They that cherish weird dreams and chase mirage, Not else but very own future mortgage. ________________________________________ Ode |05.10.2011, revised, June 2023| dreams Poet’s note: Weltschmerz: (welt = world, schmertz = pain), apathetic or vaguely yearning outlook on life, and weltanschauung: (welt = world, anschauung = perception), philosophy of life, conception of the world.