The body and mind
Were in bed
In a slumber
Suddenly, came a dream
A frightening dream
Worrying
Sweat-causing
Excruciatingly hot –
A nightmare!
A hoard of people
Wielding axes
Sharp machetes
Roaring saws
Came in waves
Mercilessly
Slaughtering trees
Strangling water springs
Singing songs
Praising farms and timber
The soil was left naked
Like a villager
Accosted along the road
By a gang of hooligans
The sun’s firebrand
Burned the soil
Hands of the wind
Vigorously rubbed it
Red dust
Started rising into the skies
Like a funeral song
Enveloping a village
With cholera as an overlord
The rains came down in a fury
Its long fingernails
Attacked the soil
Leaving injuries
Dripping with blood
Gradually, the entire land
A sea became
Not of salty water
Not of garfish and kingfish
But of enormous waves
Of sand and dust
Foam was thrown up
Perched on stones
Tree branches
And hair
When rains returned
In the farms
Green-grams and pigeon-peas
Got stranded along the way
On the journey
Of life
In villages
Cows, sheep, goats
Were transfigured
Into bones
Pushing themselves
Like aged tortoises
Like a voyager
In a canoe
In a monsoon sea
Humans, animals
Plants, insects and birds
Were shaken from side to side
And to and fro tossed
Wagged
By the ocean of doom
A cloud of grief
Enveloped villages
Like a cloud
Covering the hills
In cow-sheds, on roads
Dry shells of cows
Fell on each other
Like dry leaves
Felled by the wind
In the dry season
In homesteads
Tears flowed
Like rebel water
Gushing
From broken pipes
Interred were children
And the elderly
And finally lions
Who before the catastrophe
Were radiant with health
Through the red haze
A mocking voice
Was heard, singing
I’m the desert
Who the rains frighten
The desert
Who rivers strangle
The desert
Who eggs, milk and meat deny
The desert
Who vegetables, cereals and fruits betray
The desert
Your overlord!
