Miracle

Life lies cocooned, amidst
collapsed concrete and mangled steel;
Breathing, sighing, waiting;
Hungry, helpless, wailing…
The dead surround by hundreds,
Thousands, tens of thousands

Yet, a new life lies cocooned,
still connected to the mother
who has long breathed her last…
Arriving, blissfully unaware,
In a shaking, shaken world
Caving in, to bury its alive, under it…

Life lies cocooned, wide awake
Frightened, lonely, leaning on hope
As shrieks, wails, gasps, and silence
Despair, despondency, and darkness
Engulf from all sides
As the outside world sleeps in peace.

Life lies cocooned, shielded
in broken walls and crumbled roofs
A tired and traumatized body
flitting in between
consciousness and one last sleep
Holding on to the delicate threads
Of resolute anticipation

Life lies cocooned and still surviving,
Biding for one’s time, as death beckons;
For God, for goodness, for the great escape;
For a hand that can take it out of this abyss,
As the rescue workers dig tunnels of hope through
A mountain of debris, to reach the unreachable

Life lies cocooned, swaddled with care
Still warm, as corpses lie frozen all around
Its delicate fingers, outstretched, with expectation
From the cradle of death,
Towards another surviving human,
Even as the latent humanity, springs to life all around…

Life lies cocooned, waiting for a miracle,
Being one…

About the Poem

My poem is in response to the news pertaining to rescue operations in Syria and Turkey where “Miracle” babies, men, and women are being rescued alive from the rubble almost every day even after 10-11 days now.

About the Author

Soumya Bharathi is a writer/poet based in Bangalore, India. She uses the medium of poetry as a way of introspection about the world.