PENANCE

Surging ardor of love ebbs fast,
Flickering zeal's undoing the sail;
The foes that swore now wreck my raft
Flaying my frame like summer gale.

The love pirates have besieged me,
A scapegoat am i on death trail;
Charm'd have i been to butcher's block
By the craft of a fairy tale.

The bug is biting me brutish,
I'm caught in its villainous web;
The hug has turn'd the barb'd fetters,
I neatly have dug my own grave.

The mind with feels and memory
Has clog'd the passage to freedom;
Redemption of the self deny I ,
Even liberty from 'slavedom'.

The soul yet more seeks no riddance,
Rather the 'justice' harder still;
The captive's bleeding motionless,
The lashes slice the lover's kill...

What wrong however did this chaste soul
If claim'd the whole,for, it gave all ?
And why does she punish me
When I have withdrawn my control ?

Refuge she sought with love entire
'If in me she her sanctum found;
My yearning heart couldn't wait to lap,
And swell'd beyond limit glee abound...

But how long would the young remain,
The wings grown, and up the heaven ?
Or poor the brook with force contain
Cruise fleets when show'd the lavish main ?

Burst out my lips giggles of a fool,
I've frozen my animal blood;
Got whatever is to admit
Under canny design of God.

Divine commandment directs me,
I am performing the penance;
No death or life agitates me
I'm lost in the 'edictal' trance.
               
                        -- N P Samal