Pallikarnai Poems
Pallikarnai,one of
the prominent
waterbodies that
once provided life
breath to Chennai
(Tamilnadu, India)
is now a garbage
dumpyard. It now
serves as a moving
symbol of how the
civilized can
threaten the
environment.
I
Pallikarnai
Resounds
In the Alps.
Retches the
himalayas.
Foams
In the Ganges.
Forays the volga.
Muddles
In the Amazon
Mucks the Nile.
Incarnates
In myriad moulds
And disguises
Around the world.
Masking the demon
behind
Hoodwinks the
beholder
Letting none to
snare.
II
The subjacent hell
Pandemic heaps of
plastics
Annals of the soil
receded.
Putrifying greed
Kicked shut
The eyes of mother
earth.
Clinging the
remnants
Eager to sprout
Future laments.
Wailing of
Strangled stars
Unceased.
Abandoned birds
Scribbles the dirge
In the blazing sky.
III
Fire unfurled
Everywhere.
The stretching blaze
Scorched the city
Stoked humen bodies.
Their mind
Charred long ago.
Unable to bear
The acrid smell
Wind collapsed.
Streets whirls
around
Stuck in the
hounding wheels.
The world
Tosses upside down.
IV
Flies
Abducted the city.
Assaulted school
buses
As tanks
Demolished the sky
scrappers.
As missiles
Sped up to homes.
In hungry mouth
Dropped bombs.
Eyes were plucked
out,
Lips consumed.
Dismayed sky shrunk.
Stars severed down.
Corses
Drifted in drinking
water.
Wings are swords
Legs are spears.
Flies.
V
Before dying
Wriggling soil
Asked the children
Would you give
The leafy eyes
Only to see me?
Before the fall
Writhing earth
Entreated the
children
would you give
The ears of green
trees
Only to hear me?
To the world of the
matured
Went the little ones
Searching leafy eyes
and ears.
Will they return?
If return
Will the soil and
earth remain?
Copyright © Sabu Shanmughom | Year Posted 2014
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