[Poem] On killing a Tree

On killing a tree

So, they fell like leaves
In the sadistic Storm
The men the women the children
Swaddling babies
Captured by deceit, coercion 
Smoked out of hideouts
Caught before they could flee
The branches, leaves of the Ethnic Tree

Bundled into trains
Carted off to feed
Every burning pyres
Or flogged
Till backs broke,
Spirits and bodies fell-
Pell mell

Their belongings piled
Mounds upon mounds
of suitcases, footwear,
Clothes, toys --
Rotting leaves
Awaiting release


Brutality
Has fancy names
Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing
 Attempts made time and again
To expose, exterminate, expunge
Entire communities

Yet,
There is Survival
Revival.
Return.
So, it is never done.

On Killing A Tree
#KaafiyaMilao

[Poem] I search

Image by: HelgaMcL

I search for him
In smiles strange
In hands extended -I search
For the one touch

Rummaging
Through words that fall of alien lips

Sifting through tones
I search for The Voice

In the light of a thousand eyes
I scour
For the look that delights

In the gloom of the night
When dreams walk free
I hunt for reunion

In slideshows of memories
That collapse and rise
In constant auto play
I search

Tears pry open
Crumpled eyes
Sluice gates
Rise
To release
The misery
Threatening to explode
A tormented heart

Loss teaches love
Alas, when all is lost

[Poem] Reflection

Winter engulfs me
Icy, twisted tentacles
Touch and tint
My world in grey

I lie
Eyes glazed,
limbs tremulous- tethered in ether

I
float about
in stupor all day
I await
A second amnion
Dark and gnarled is the bark
that threaded through life
Dark and worn it lies
Filling my vision

Shrouded in grave silence
A sputtering dyslexic
I have made my peace with Time

Yet
Time lingers
An annoying shadow
Prods
To reflect
Time and again
To regret
Time and again
Would I delight?

A light floods the room                       

A voice speaks
'Stare not closely at your feet
Or at the closing world

Don't miss the sunshine
The many surges in the sky
The flecks of delightful hues
Springs at the trampoline
Laughter and birdsong
Flower showers on your pastures

Your memories
Frozen
In amber crystals
Shall forever live
In treasured caches'


Image Courtesy: Nathan Vaidyanathan