In Search of You

From dawn to dusk I move around, On the loose sands and gravel mound, With bare foot and tanned skin Dry lips and cracked chin, My drooping eyes and thirsty throat, Desperately looking for a moat, Wearing a grubby skirt and mucky blouse, I am searching for a lake or pond to douse, I am trudging on the hot sun Its rays shoots me like a gun, Even my blood boils to steam, Blisters and boils all over but no sunscreen I look scraggy and scrawny And all my people bony and skinny, Every day I carry the urn And walk till my foot burn, Only to return home with empty pot, And show my family the outside drought, The lush green paddy fields, Now turned to dry brown grass of no yields, The river banks where we lay, Became cricket grounds for my friends to play, The flickering brook where I bath Has made itself a new foot path, The mighty ox bow meanders, Now only for existing salamanders, Even our stone brick well Is dry and not well, The horror nights and hunger fights, The Morning lights and parched arid sights, This world looks lifeless, empty and torpid, The sterile lands stand hot and torrid My sticky skin wraps my bones, This skeleton body never dies alone, I am lying down counting my days Less spirited and starving to grace The sand slowly covers by frame For the scavengers to taste and nothing remains Though my body fails to be, My soul will travel underneath to see The Elixir of life, where it lies? To quench the thirst of thousand cries My dear Water! Where are you? 14 April, 2016 Poetry contest sponsor Laura loo