Shail explores contemporary anxieties: illicit wealth, social media facades, and the betrayal of trust within a fast-paced, profit-driven world, exclusively for Different Truths.

Brown gold dated

Saudi is the place to be if you have
the money and the time.
But what if you want to make
that extra dime?
Buy dry fruits, dates in particular.
Just an activity, extra-curricular.
That’s what a 56-year-old Indian did.
In dates, little gold pieces were hidden.
Rolled up, you never would suspect.
If you chanced across them, I bet
you wouldn’t have checked
until those tasty looking dates
clanked against your teeth,
a gold mausoleum with sheath.
That’s how custom officials discovered 
this chap at Delhi airport 
carrying his loot in a date port.
I guess, people are particular
now-a-days
to not smuggle loot in their bodies
anymore, the dates could have
escaped had the x-ray scan not been
active.
So, the next time you buy a bunch of dates
watch out for lead, gold baits.

Fear Of Missing Out

Not all can be where they want to be.
There are some glam places they want to flee.
Instant gratification has found a provider.
Fake it if you can’t make it, what a rider!
Get Your Flex allows you to flex your social muscles
for a price without rolling any expensive dice.
So, if it is a concert you couldn’t be at,
contact Get Your Flex on Instagram,
pay a price, have your presence
stamped for posterity with a scam.
Trendy cafes, popular events, you call
the shots and you are tagged at the ball.
Not much to invest in to show off
to the world what you really are not
if only to appear the perfect picture hot.
What a FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) this is.
Wanting to click yourself in the social fizz.
Reflective of the insecure society that so prevails.
Rushing in where fools dare to tread
and their life train derails.
Whatever happened to simple living
that excluded what others wanted to do
with your life.
Just you. No social media pressure.
No strife.

Doctor drug dealers

What is with celebrities wanting to take
that last shot at making their lives better
and then falling prey to drug shots go getters?
Michael Jackson, Matthew Perry,
they all have this in common.
A sinister doctor friend injected them with
hellish saw men.
Why is that the people they trusted
for their good health
led them to death’s premature belt?
Earlier, the celebrities were blamed
for their fatal demise.
Now, doctors, drug sellers are being
prosecuted says an attorney’s statement wise.
Delayed justice is injustice, you would say.
True, fast money, faster moving life is here to stay.

References:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/56-year-old-booked-for-smuggling-gold-concealed-in-dates/articleshow/118610549.cms#:~:text=A%2056%2Dyear%2Dold%20male,inside%20dates%2C%20at%20IGI%20Airport.&text=Customs%20recovered%20172%20grams%20of,channel%20based%20on%20spot%20profiling

https://www.hindustantimes.com/trending/bengaluru-woman-pays-instagram-account-for-fake-tag-from-diljit-concert-her-honest-review-101734415236497.html

https://www.ndtv.com/feature/matthew-perry-was-given-27-ketamine-shots-before-death-claims-new-documentary-7800945/amp/1?utm_campaign=fullarticle&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=inshorts

Shail Raghuvanshi

Shail Raghuvanshi is a poet, freelance journalist, copyeditor, voice actor, and artist with 30 years of experience in various media. She has worked as the Cultural Correspondent for India’s first integrated media company, PLUS Channel, and has written course material for Madurai Kamaraj University’s Post Graduate Programme in Advertising and Public Relations. She has also been a coach of Communicative English. She has published poems, short stories, and articles in leading magazines and anthologies.