The Largest Albatross: A Poem by Dr. Sonika Sethi

Fluttering eyelids open to wakefulness from etherized slumber
Only to witness a deep abyss and no ground under
All around haggard, disheveled men move on time’s scalding sands
Frosty, soulless eyes; festering wounds; blood oozing sore-ridden hands.
A dead albatross around each neck measuring the weight of guilt
Making them drag their feet, this way and that
Some stumble, others falter; tripping and slipping
Humanity looks heavenwards for some salvation, some solace
Gods to show mercy, lend some celestial grace.
One being fairer than all, shining in all luminescence
Lugs around with the largest albatross around his neck,
He trudges silently as a rock among the human cadence.
“Why the largest bird, he bears?” I ask a fellow in passing
“What loathsome deed plague him? What could be his amassing?”
“The Omnipotent, the Omniscient, He is above all station.
Yet He, too, must penance for the sins of His own Creation.”