Wednesday, January 22, 2025

RECTANGLE OF LIFE

Verification of cards at every public place

shops, restaurants, ATM machines, kiosks, airports

the list endless, humans in a race to amass them

proof of existence collapsed into obese wallets

with multiplied card slots

currency notes pushed to pillion rider's seat.


Playing cards or greeting cards filled childhood

birthday cards, new year cards filed as nostalgia somewhere, 

playing cards dog ears exchange hands during summer or winter breaks

UNO cards of my daughter, a shared playful time of ours, even now

on her occasional office holidays


Credit card, debit card, health care, driver's licence, 

insurance card, national identification card, loyalty cards

names unheard of then, now household names

 some laminated, some electronic

each updated version an upgraded verification.



Frantic at the loss or theft of a credit or debit card

cards define our very existence

These small rectangles rule our lives, 

who are we without them?

Lost travellers in this modern journey of life.


The traveller reaches the final destination

a dug-out rectangle on the ground awaits him

the traveller unaware of this only rectangle

that rests him or her at the end

sometimes cloaked in a coffin

sometimes just laid on the ground

sometimes burnt on a pyre

shape unaltered 

other preserved rectangles lose their purpose.

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