Helpless Angels: A poem by Sampurna Chatterjee Ganguly

Cradled in granny's lap my childhood passed,

In winter by the hearth, or in spring on the bed with mirth,

Listening to the tales of angels and imagining their white wings,

I began to grow up by giving time winks. 

I knew for sure they would come to make my years golden,

I used to feel their presence around to make myself emboldened. 

The clouds o'er the hills, the stars around the moon,

All used to appear to me like angels coming to the earth soon. 

Life was joyous until the reality stark,

The angels with their gossamer wings ne'er embarked.

Agonized humans around and the unavoidable disaster,

Making life interrupt its ride of roller coaster. 

"Why don't they come to heal our world" I soliloquized that day seeing again the stars,

Instead of the angels, I could see only the faces of ours,

Hapless people suffering to breathe,

Mankind is now the only prey of this pandemic. 

The angels of my dream were helpless too, they disappeared in the distant horizon,

Of course, they went but they had taught me a lesson,

" We have to fight, we have to stand,

We are our angels, so we can one day withstand."