Lennon Requiem

by Rajani Kanth

 

On this day  in 1980,  John Lennon was assassinated (sic) , in NYC

I wrote this for him but a short while later

 

 

There is no

resolve

but impotence

no voice

but whispers

death

 

no artistry

but cancer rent

no speech

but guilts

the breath

 

(ii)

 

one flick of flame

and lips of lead

lay scorched upon

that fountainhead

         

and dark the crimson

current streamed

as he lay dying

in a fiery dream

 

(iii)

 

forty winters froze

as one

even as the silence

spread

 

a scarlet shroud

to still the flow

of pools his

purple passions fed

 

(iv)

 

Shadows are

substantial, things

in the archways

of the mind

 

who casts not a’

backward look

oft is hunted

from behind

 

( v)

 

he saw, he heard

he fell from high

sank to seed

and rose to sky

 

who could tell

one slick of light

would seal the

darkness

in his sight ?

 

(vi)

cradled in one

cry of pain

he lay there

mingling with

the rain

 

and so he ebbed

a babe in arms

lover,  god,

and child again

 

[© R.Kanth 2021]

______________

Professor Rajani Kanth, Author of Coda, A Day in the Life, and Expiations, is Trustee of the World Peace Congress