Tuesday, May 1, 2012

The Urn


Each in his cubicle of unyielding walls
With spreadsheets of hours of calculated loss
And interests of compounded hate.

My acrobatic words
Now misstep their leaps
And crash their bones along walls.

Springs and ladders now can’t be of help
When maps of lands beyond walls are lost.

Caving my head within files and screen
I’ve typed my bones with care.

So here’s my urn to the future unborn:
Build all your thunders or burn.



Note: According to an Indian legend Dadhichi, a great sage, realising that his bones were the only way by which the gods could defeat the demons willingly gave his life in a pit of mystical flames he summoned with the power of his austerities.Brahma is then said to have fashioned a large number of weapons from Dadhichi's bones, including the Vajra/thunder, which was fashioned from his spine. The gods are then said to have defeated the demons using the weapons thus created.

21 comments:

sayan said...

crash or burn??nah...you will build the thunder and hold it in your palms...and when the time comes, strike...with words...as i once wrote...words as swords, words as oxygen cylinders

Sherry Blue Sky said...

I can see the poet in his cubicle, and love "I've typed my bones with care". Very interesting footnote, too.

Mary said...

There is sadness here: calculated loss, compounded hate, maps are lost, typing one's own bones. I do hope you are doing okay.

Kerry O'Connor said...

I love the way you have blended myth and the reality of 21st century work environment.

These lines are epigrammatic:

Springs and ladders now can’t be of help
When maps of lands beyond walls are lost

Anonymous said...

i like acrobatic words misstep leaps

renal test

verification makes it really hard to comment. you'd get more comments if you turned it off. i had to do this several times to get it to work.

Anonymous said...

i'm sure u'll be much happier with it off...notice, most people have it off

sonnet 24

Anonymous said...

The way you combine noun, verb, and concept is incredibly clever.

vivinfrance said...

I had to read it a few times before I felt comfortable with this disturbing poem. Your process notes aided understanding considerably, thank you.

Unknown said...

I work in one of those cubicles :(

Scarlet said...

I like the last line...so thought provoking. Thanks for the note too ~

Happy day to you ~

Ravenblack said...

It reads like the narrator's own dreams are lost in the routines of mundane work. The cubicle is portrayed like a hopeless prison and all the work is a representation of what was lost and accumilation of resentment. The narrator puts his head down and works on, I think the end is warning to a future generation, narrator's own children or to the younger ones.

Fascinating foot note. Helps somewhat in relating to the poem. Enjoyed reading.

Daydreamertoo said...

It must feel like being imprisoned to sit in one of those dreadful small cubicles all day.
I love all of the imagery in this and also the explanation which follows about the myth to explain the use of bones.
Lovely writing.

Mark Windham said...

Love that last line, strong finish.

Herotomost said...

Weaving together the past and the present in a very cool poem. Some hard hitting lines, most already mentioned by the others, and the ending line....awesome. Woohooo!!!!

SprigBlossoms said...

Powerful words! I love the connection of the mythical urn to the present :)

Timoteo said...

I like "interests of compounded hate."

Maybe that's what spurned the Occupy Wall Street movement!

Shawna said...

These are my favorite lines:

"cubicle of unyielding walls"

"I’ve typed my bones with care"

Isadora Gruye said...

Kudos for you to using spreadsheets in a mythological sense. I liked this piece immensely much. I will be thinking about this when I return to work this week. Blasted cubicle walls never hold enough intrigue, until now. Thanks!

Unknown said...

These lines are great. Really casting off a wisdom through verse. Love the myth legend in the notes. Great job. thanks

Margaret said...

"interests of compounded hate" as noted above is nice. I am so glad you added the footnote as explanation and the idea of words doing battle. Nice. I just hope, one's life doesn't need to be offered in this scenerio - or is that what the cubicle is doing to you?

Unknown said...

I really appreciate the explanation, Abin, because I had a hard time following the tale. Then, rereading knowledgeably, I recognized the ultimate in martyrdom. Clever.

http://www.kimnelsonwrites.com/2012/05/08/boldly/