The Second Coming

I admit I’ve been pretty regular about not regularly updating this blog. I could give you a million excuses – of how all the forces of nature got together and conspired against me, keeping me from updating this journal, of how life’s been a total bitch to me. But, like a fat singer once sang, I won’t do that. Because, no matter how good the excuse, it is still an excuse and, thus, a waste of time – both yours and mine.

But I’ll tell you where I’ve been for the past couple of weeks. I’ve been in a hospital, watching a life slowly fade away, bit by bit, breath by breath. I’ve been watching someone I know fight a losing battle against a disease that has no cure. I’ve been noticing with disbelief how little life means to those who are entrusted with the task of saving lives. I’ve been noticing with disgust how hospitals have now turned into parasites, the kind that suck you dry of your money and then caste you away to die. May be I’ll write about it here someday. May be I won’t. But for now I’ll leave you with something I wrote a couple of hours back:


ALL IN THE NAME OF LOVE

An estranged couple speaks:
It’s funny how a four-letter word keeps this cycle spinning,
funny, how a hundred - in this game for two - keep you and me running.
Love shrouded by lies and this new age self-denial theory;
These wise men preach absurdity, the kind they don’t practice;
these hypocrites ask me of my life as a sacrifice in the name of propriety.
My head’s spinning but better sense tells me – stop fighting, it’s a lose-lose situation.
But what about you and me and this thing called life?
What about freewill, freedom and living?


An HIV+ expectant mother speaks:
A pro-life paperback on the community library shelf
encourages sharing of a little fluid between you and me.
They pass a moaning breath of death in the name of love and living.
The anti-death hate-mongers shout for the half-dead life that’s yet to be;
they are the judge and the jury who sentence the three of us to living hell
with an air of conscientiousness and a dab of deception.
But what about you and me and the tomb in my womb?
What about freewill, freedom and the unborn dead?


A victim of religious intolerance speaks:
Heaven’s rendered deaf by empty prayers of forceful conversion;
The Chosen One died for love; devoid of conviction, they kill for hate.
Heads roll in the holy land, blood of innocents fill the Holy Grail;
The angel of death rules over what was once a valley of life.
The tree of knowledge’s made hollow by the termites waging holy war,
The couple in the Garden’s poisoned by the deceiver’s venom.
But what about you and me and this thing called belief?
What about freewill, freedom and faith?



Love is shrouded everyday by the self-appointed Anti-Divorce Squads who make it their business to see to it that estranged couples are not allowed to exercise their personal freedom. Ditto for the Pro-Marriage Squads who try to play god and force unwilling partners to start a life together.
Love is shrouded by the two-faced Anti-Abortion Squads who’d rather see a HIV+ child born and suffer in the name of ‘right to life’ than let it slip into a peaceful, painless sleep.
Love is shrouded by those bigoted Anti-Freewill Squads who force their religious beliefs on others and rob us of our God-granted freewill.
Ironically, all in the name of love!