Conscience ????

'Kuveni and Sea Serpents'; Artwork by Anoli Perera

When commonsense has fled,

wisdom gone into exile,

When memory dies a convenient death

and neighbors seem enemies,

When desolation becomes peace

and compassion bartered for rhetoric –

Conscience becomes a curse,

a burden,

a tear,

a sigh.

I hope

they will crush my memory,

and my conscience

along with it,

So that I too would see

peace in desolation,

compassion in rhetoric,

and the golden hues that

drape the ghosts.

29^th March 2013, Vasnt Kunj