The sky studded with white puffy clouds

Boast of overpowering the sky

Shyly retreating into the background for awhile

The burning rays smolder the earth and the sky

As the birds, hastily retreat into the background

Hiding behind the cottony spools of cloudy vapors

The temporary shelter rests their tired spirit

As they resume their flight towards the burning earth

To drop and slip into the green branches that hold their nests

Night draws out the fugitive moon

And studs the sky with twinkling stars

That brighten and lighten the cumbersome day

Exhausted men, women and children

Knock the doors of the past

When nature, surrounded with love and beauty

Hooked ones’ eyes and captivated the senses

Now here and there, lie dead trees… motionless

Wounded to the core

Bruised and mutilated bleeding and weeping

 The dried up salty tears mark the cruelty of man

Ignorant of the fate

Nature, now disenchanted lies dull

Its natural beauty exhausted and marred

It does not curse man

It sheds tears of sorrow

At the disheveled world man lives in

 And has cast a spell

The same that the witches had cast for Macbeth

                                                                                 ~Shobha Diwakar  

                                                                            Jabalpur, India