Sukrita Paul Kumar1
Memories
Your shriveled
Winter bark
Is a mere mask over
Those chirpy moments, tunnels of
Dense exchanges, breezy quarrels
Those hours of snow meditations
We soared through the skies
To the sounds of
The universe
The autumnal fall
cannot shed them all
Remember,
I am not the summer green of your
Leaves that comes, teasing you
Again and yet again
On this wakeful
winter morning
I see it all
You are in fact
Empty of your ghost…
I see it all
Today too
Wrapped in that same
green shawl
That ageless spirit
Emerges from the nowhere
Of tall keekers of
Jehanpanah,
Gently stepping
through rows of shadowy trees
as on other mornings
tiptoeing
thief-like
in search for another form
an oak, a chinar or
perhaps a peepal
The birds twitter
on my branches
As the mountains slide
into the jungles
on the plains.
2
THE CHOSEN ONE
The monkeys of Summerhill
as if
motherless
No longer any chestnuts
For them
from this tree
This tree, the chosen one
Struck by lightning
The soul
as if
pulled out
One monsoon evening
The skies conspired
and fell on it
Life stilled
as if
In moments slithering
Brutal silence
Descending
Into twisted arms,
Embracing the tilting
seductive trunk
Roots in knots
The tree barren
Its silhouette in moonlight
Has monkeys on it
With chestnuts
as if
between their teeth.
3
Sulibhajan Temple
Aurangabad
At dusk each day
At Sulibhajan
When the temple bells ring
And the aarti fills
the fine dark spaces
Cracks and crevices shiver
in the belly of this hillock
All the dogs
with their pups
come together,
crane their necks
and sing in unison
Their half-closed lotus eyes
Reaching into the skies;
the purohit
Playing music on the shila
Sa re ga ma pa dha ni sa
Tails wagging in harmony
Sulibhajan is
The sacred gift of
Tapasvi Aiknath,
Between the wrinkled past
lying crouched
in the caves of Ellora
And the loud galloping present
of the city of Aurangabad,
Here, in complete isolation,
Outside time,
Dogs and stones create
Fellowship in suffering and joy…
*
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అక్కిరాజు భట్టిప్రోలు
రవి వీరెల్లి
శ్రీరామ్ పుప్పాల
అఫ్సర్
స వెం రమేశ్
అట్టాడ అప్పల్నాయుడు
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