Turn to Art

To witness the distant yet fiery sun
(Pic courtesy: Pixabay)

Collectively drowning in quicksand

and know not where to look

The pandemic and its resultant

cancellations, negations, and closures

have shaken the ground beneath us

How do we navigate through this?

Knowing that all knowns will be lost

Entrenched in these ominous thoughts,

I look past my living room window

To witness the distant yet fiery sun

captured evocatively by Van Gogh

with his olive trees and yellow sky

Before his breakdowns became debilitating

Profound resonance in circular brush strokes

Remark I, wiping the dust off of old hardcovers

Hemingway surely knew what he wrote

Man can simply keep on learning but

there is a certain amount each can understand

for whom does the bell really toll?

Convoluted messages, augmenting figures on

random news updates, incessant literature

and flawed messages on social media

Are we narrativizing the pandemic properly?

Divorced from empathy, it is monstrous

Ring around Rosie adopts a novel perspective

death from a virus; ominous retellings

science fragments but art conjoins

hope might seem like Bronte’s

timid friend; vanished on listening close

Again by my windowsill looking at the sky

How would the great meteor of 1860 seem?

Hopeful; leaning towards better tomorrows

Already etched in the minds of artists

waiting, just waiting to be heard

albeit passively in times such as these.

More to read in Poems

पेंन्टिंग! by Gulzar: A Translation and Transcreation

Talk of Shades

From the Last Time

About the Author

Sanjhee Gianchandani ( 1 Post)

Sanjhee Gianchandani holds a Masters’ degree in English from Lady Shri Ram College for Women and a CELTA from the University of Cambridge. She has been published in eFiction India, Madras Courier, Borderless Journal, Indian Ruminations, among others.
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