Illustration: Stuffed Crested Lark in a natural history museum
In the Urban Wilderness
Perhaps I could sing words of birds
Along smiling shoots of spring
In the company of mango bloom
And soothing green of cuckoo's Pancham,
And dance under the canopy of clouds
To the peacock's call in the backyards
On the pathway of Meghdootam
There in the abode of Saras;
Or inscribe them on deadly diskettes
For the posterity.
In my mega-city, mummies
Of birds celebrate, sing silently,
In the tombs of Natural History.
Who shall cherish the memory
Of my jungle of skyscrapers
And of glass buildings which scares
The heavenly eagles away;
Of serpentine Metro that snatches
The abode of Shesha's descendants away!
[29-2-1996]
Illustration: Stuffed Crested Lark in a natural history museum: species of plants and animals are becoming extinct with progress and development of Industrial Civilization.(Image source: Internet)
Note: Pancham: the Fifth note of the seven tones. Eagle is considered Lord Visnhu's vehicle by the Hindus. Meghdootam: The classic literary work in Sanskrit by poet Kalidasa. Saras: a bird. Shesha: Primeval serpent that lives in lower world, the bed of Lord Vishnu, the ancester of snakes on the earth.
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© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.
