I.
Why do they dance on the streets?
Look how they revel till midnight, thinking their revelry gives meaning!
Do they not realise,
That this is just another series, another cycle.
This artificial imposition of importance,
Nothing but an arbitrary excuse to carouse?
O blind humans! I see through the mask you wear!
Know that,
All there is,
Is time repeating itself,
The same cycle again,
And again;
An endless circularity into nothingness;
Gripping fearful humans by their mortality,
Its death march calling out our names.
II.
We dance because we are the sons and daughters of Dionysus,
See the madness course through our veins!
And this cycle is arbitrary, and time endlessly throws us into nothingness,
And our revelry is temporary, but look!
We are alive! Our meaning is in us.
And if death is where we are headed,
Then we will dance with death too.
In the face of its inevitability,
Is the courage of our love,
The succour of our memories,
And the Starfire in our eyes.
See us burst into iridescent light before eternal night comes,
And perhaps, that is all there is.
Abhiraj Singh holds advanced degrees in Philosophy from St Stephens College, Delhi University, and the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. When he isn’t doing philosophy he occasionally composes poetry and ruminates on how the two often aren’t mutually exclusive.