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Time Destroys All Earthly Greatness: A Poem by Ritu Karma Kumar

‘Ozymandias’ trunkless legs of stone lie on sandy land
False sense of superiority mocking at him as he departs empty hand

Time plays its artistry on pretty puffed up porcelain beauty
Eyes get bespectacled and gone is the insouciant toss of illustrious hair duly

Flying on the wings of umpteen wishes and a cacophony of greed
Fathomless leaps, spinning, somersaulting man accumulates beyond his need

Governed by the whims he gets consumed by the noise of discontent
Obsessed by a fairy tale he forgets that life on the earth is transient

All the kings and Mighty go riding by changing leaves and boughs
All the lives on earth full of trees are bound to sleep in a humble heap

Fleeting time waits for none, we can never experience it again
Magical memories that we make, and get transfixed can only be retained

Sickle of time reaps all, splendor and stateliness is left on the earth
Not the wealth, it is health and happiness that is paramount and the best.