In the Urban Wilderness

 Illustration- Stuffed Crested Lark

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.

Ref: 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 reserved.