Sometimes I perceive a solitary man
Standing by the side of a lonesome tree
Eyes hooked to the pavement
Lost in the wilderness of rushing cars
Hooting and tooting flying past the drudgery road
Roughened hair disheveled by the dusty wind
Bony and shriveled fingers knotted and resting
On the dry branch of the ‘lonesome tree’
Emaciated and spent of rueful life
I pass by him… he curiously throws a curvy smile
I wonder why he stands there everyday
Come sunshine
Come rain
Come winter
Come fog
His relentless craving to stand by its side
Raises innumerable questions in my mind
I smile back at him
He nods his head
I dare to talk to him a little afraid of rebuke
For he stands there lost in some faraway memory
I stand there… should I, should I not?
My hesitancy instills in him a will to talk
I surrender
He speaks willingly:
“Sometimes ago this ‘lonesome tree’ was not bare”
“It flooded with leaves and fruits”
“The heavy boughs touched the ground”
“Bowing to God’s bounty”
“A gregarious man cut down the tree to build a road”
“And
Walked away with the laden branches”
“Ruthlessly shredding them to pieces”
“I survived
And
Hang here eternally
Mourning the loss”
~Shobha Diwakar
Jabalpur, India
Indian Periodical
Indian Periodical
The poet has come out with how we are indifferent to landscape these days!
We readily point to infrastructure
When even full-blown trees
Are sought to be cut out
In the most unceremonious way!
Are we not aware of
The extent to which
We owe our wellness
To the power of trees?
Are we not ahamed
To root them out
Quite oblivious to
Overall benefits we enjoy?
Time to learn to be courteous and
Entertain emotional breakdown of
Our heart at the cruel slaughter of
Trees that sustain us unfailingly!
it’s so painful to see lines of trees being ‘mauled’ down for no rhyme or reason
we claim and shout plant more trees but more are cut down than planted & if they do tehy are left to die without any care
thank you OKRSji for your appreciation