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May 4, 2016

Three Poems By Sunil Sharma: "Et tu Brute?", "Phantom Road", "Red Moon"

Mumbai-based, Sunil Sharma, a college principal, is also widely-published Indian critic, poet, literary interviewer, editor, translator, essayist and fiction writer. He has already published three collections of poetry, one collection of short fiction, one novel and co-edited five books so far. His six short stories and the novel Minotaur were recently prescribed for the undergraduate classes under the Post-colonial Studies, Clayton University, Georgia, USA. He is a recipient of the UK-based Destiny Poets’ inaugural Poet of the Year award---2012. He edits the online journal Episteme: http://www.episteme.net.in/






Et tu Brute?


They claimed later on that Caesar
that Great Emperor that lusted for lands and things other
died more of shock rather than the daggers twisted in and the wound
and blood loss by this ferocious attack by the group of sixty, Ides of March, 44BC.
The shock caused by the recognition of a trusted face and the anguished sense of betrayal registered in these three words, legend or real---matters not.
Well, that cry still echoes across the world, despite the void of time and space,
in contexts varied, yet similar in many ways.
When end- unexpected comes from a friend close and mentored for long
who will not utter them, modern or post-modern, in location or sensibility?
Well, well, some things never change in civilizational timelines, old or new,
despite us landing on the moon and the high-tech Hollywood fighting aliens and terrible dinosaurs!
Both Julius Caesar and Marcus Brutus enjoy an afterlife;
Both dwelling within the same human heart beating for me and more.

Phantom road


The moon-lit
country lane
curving ahead.
Hungrily hugged
by moving shadows.
Music of the
silvery trees
fusing with the hum
of a dying river.
Heard far-off
In a troubled sleep
by an urban mind.



Red moon


Startling!
A red moon.
Is it my red-eyes?
Or, climate change?
The dust and the smog
Of a breathless mega-city?
The white moon
Scarred, dark
Drenched in blood
Looks strange
From that high perch
In a gloomy sky!

~Sunil Sharma