Admonishing A Vain Mind

By Sreejit Datta

And now my mind is in that peculiar state,

Which I would’ve gleefully named ‘a blank slate’;

But then almost immediately I came to realize,

With a good deal of bitter surprise,

That no such thing could I ever gain

By lounging about,

And whiling away my time in vain.

So, this pointless self-glorification of the mind must stop,

And it better be focused, before on the bed of pyre I drop,

On some worthy vocation, which’d seem worthwhile

Alike to street hawkers and to lonesome heroes in exile.

By Sreejit Datta