THE QUEST
Needing sleep after a long drive,
I eyed my bed and felt so glad.
At last, I could have a nomad’s night,
Fused in the arms of my dreams.
Once in bed, I closed my eyes
And waited for my dreams
To cradle me. But my dreams
Did not hasten. At last, I saw them.
How shrivelled they looked! So frail!
Alas, autumn had caught up.
In my youth, my dreams were of spring.
I celebrated them with vigour each day.
My appetite for them was unquenchable.
I wandered over skies and meadows
And listened, all agog, to their folksy tunes.
I shed tears over the fate of my dreams.
That morning, I opened the newspaper.
The toxic air of the city cried out for dialysis.
My dreams had breathed that air.
May God grant humanity dreams that endure.
Pramod Rastogi is an Emeritus Professor at the EPFL, Switzerland. He is a poet, academician, researcher, author of nine scientific books, and a former Editor-in-chief (1999-2019) of the international scientific journal, Optics and Lasers in Engineering. He was an honorary Professor at the IIT Delhi between 2000 and 2004. He was a guest Professor at the IIT Gandhinagar between 2019 and 2023. He is presently an honorary adjunct Professor at the IIT Jammu.
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