A Peg Of Anguish

I could be accused of
having a too-romanticized idea of life.
I imagined myself living under clean skies,
wide roads and lush gardens
ablaze with tropical flowers.
I wanted to be James Bond,
escorting gorgeous women around,
martini in hand.
I wanted the exotic and the wild.
I wanted it all.
But that was in the past
and with time, I’ve discovered that
as statistics, life too can be manipulated
to produce a large array of conclusions.
The longer I live, the more reality begins
to chew away at my idealism.
Now, I look around me and the world
has become unrecognizable.
Blaring horns and choking fumes.
Young girls offering
their bodies for a few coins.
A lame dog loitering
over industrial graveyards in search of food,
a mute victim of man’s callous greed.
Is this life?
Is this the life I had dreamed of?
I might have foreseen big, beautiful things
but all I have in my cup now
is a peg of a poet’s anguish and nothing else.

Bhuwan Thapaliya was born in Kathmandu, Nepal and is one of the most widely read Nepali poets writing in English today. Thapaliya, who works as an economist, is the author of four poetry collections. His books include the recently released Safa Tempo: Poems New and Selected (Nirala Publication, New Delhi,http://niralapublications.com/new-booksarrivals/ ) and Our Nepal, Our Pride (Cyberwit.net) narrative verses of love, peace, and human understanding.
(http://www.amazon.com/Our-Nepal-Pride-Bhuwan-Thapaliya/dp/8182531152) .
Poetry by Thapaliya has been included in The New Pleiades Anthology of Poetry and Tonight: An Anthology of World Love poetry (http://www.skylinepublications.com/TONIGHTWorldLovePoetry/TONIGHTWorldLovePoetry.htm) as well as in literary journals such as Urhalpool, MahMag, Kritya, FOLLY, The Vallance Review, Nuvein Magazine, Foundling Review, Poetry Life and Times, Poets Against the War, Voices in Wartime, Taj Mahal Review, Strong Verse, poetseers.org, theasiamag.com, asianamericanpoetry.com, and more. Thapaliya has read his poetry and attended seminars in venues around the world, including South Korea, the United States, Thailand, Cambodia, and Nepal.