by Raju Peddada
Poetry
(Swans - December 5, 2011)
I sit on the stoop of the 21st century,
and listen to the right argue with the left.
I sit in a restaurant,
Waffling, on who to choose from the menu.
I sit on the toilet, listening to their shit,
Trying hard, to be in the center.
I saw 50 years disappear,
along with peace, in their lousy politics.
I sit at my own funeral,
Listening to a dirge, on democracy's demise.
I lie down and die, to avoid the demagogues,
But, I cannot pull their hands from my pocket.
Let us look at the world in black & white,
and take respite, from the cacophony of color.
Especially, the color of blood,
in revolutions, chameleon politics, and bankruptcies.
Let us subsist for a while in the gray,
and learn that everything is best in compromise.
Let us, for a while, be cocooned in ambiguity,
For it is a cloud, away from absolutism.
Let us record about our failures,
for it will be an amusing lesson to posterity.
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About the Author
Raju Peddada is an industrial designer running an eponymous brand, purveyor of ultra luxury furnishings of his own design (see peddada.com). He is also a freelance correspondent/writer for several publications, specializing in commentary, essay, and opinions on architecture, design, photography, books, fashion, society, and culture. Peddada was born in Tallapudi, a small southern town in south India. He's lived in New Delhi and Bombay before migrating to the West Indies and eventually settling in Chicago, Illinois, where he worked in corporate America until he chose to set up his own designing firm. He lives with his family in Des Plaines. (back)