Sunday Feature Poem By Ketaki Datta

Sunday Feature Poem By Ketaki Datta

No veils, please!

( written in commemoration of the women killed ruthlessly, when the Talibans catapulted to power in Afghanistan ) She is a lady in veil now, But last month she hated to conceal the flame of her beauty behind the Porous linen, Her eyes were aglow With avid queries, She was all agog To unearth the mysteries Of the milky way,the blinking stars, the orbit of the celestial body,the parabolic trajectory of all the stars and planets! But after a sudden upheaval When she feels like bombarding the terrorists feigning to be statesmen, Who parade the crooked shenanigans Leaving the society in a trepidation! She would like to topple their reign Which has just begun by hook Or by crook and usher in whiffs Of fresh air, filled with a promise Of liberty ,of 'unveiled' freedom! But downtown quite a few bravehearts like her, got killed for a blatant protest!  

Lost Classrooms

(Last year, when uncertainties still kept us in a tizzy , thinking what next?) A year and a half has sped by With a slew of online classes, Online counselling of weak aspirants, Who flounder in the sea Of uncertainties, in the Quagmire of false hopes! Days speed by,months run, The tutors stay veiled Behind a screen,turned-off, Segregating themselves in The cool assurance of comfort-- Of home,of a seemingly secured job That would help them wade through The unseen future,concealed Behind an unpredictable threat! The students brave 'net glitches, Try to discern the mammoth tomes made easy by the mentors, Some of which are hard to chew let alone to be digested! Come O , Virus -free days, Come exchange of intellectual gaze, Of the teacher and the student -- Free us of this deplorable predicament!! BIO Ketaki Datta is an academic,novelist,poet,reviewer,translator with a couple of poetry collections to her credit.She has a number of academic volumes and two novels along with three translated novels(from Bengali to English) .She is a regular reviewer with Compulsive Reader and Muse India.