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A serpentine row of pillars of stone  
Winding through farms, woods and much weeded track
Like suture marks upon earth's bordered skin,  
And white-washed, each proclaiming its number in black.  

Stones planted to divide lands, not unite, 
Divide lives well as raising red ripples, 
Dissect what not long ere was seamless one, 
When culture and a common tongue once fused peoples. 

Then as fate fated, a seed from a bird-
Dropping under a pillar once sprouted,
And a sprawling Peepal Tree spread its wings,
Perhaps, hoping to unite what was divided.

A bird from which land had sauntered therein? 
Harvested by whom, whose seeds did it eat? 
Birds belong to no nations, nor they care, 
With unique disdain do they borders tend to beat. 

Nourished by common soil the tree had grown, 
Mocking at stone pillars, gathered had dust— 
Obliterating man-made marks on them, 
Per chance carping that the borders drawn were unjust. 

No soldier watching borders had the heart 
To root the sapling out, nor grown-up hunk, 
None thought of replacing back the pillar, 
Many chose to scrawl their stray thoughts on its vast trunk. 

The Peepal Tree, a mark of mundane life, 
As scriptures say, should one day severed be, 
But should this stone-pillar be sacrificed? -- 
The tree that stood teaching tenets of unity. 

It still stands cooling borders on each side, 
And tempers too that in restless mind dwell, 
Trees tie together what borders divide, 
The mother earth as well wants that peace should prevail. 

Alas, men failed to do what a bird did, 
Winged feathers for no man-made borders care, 
The bird, a true angel of peace indeed, 
Descended to show, hearts when heal enough, they share. 
__________________________ 
Happenings | 04.02.2011 | narrative, tree, peace, borders
Note: This piece takes off from a true happening on Indo-Pak border at Suchetgarh. In an allegoric reference, Peepal Tree represents a mundane world of desires as referred to by Bhagavad-Gita # 15.3). The quatrains are set in iambic pentameter, the fourth line being a hexameter.
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