A country in bereavement
Becomes an apothecary
Of effervescent sights
Becomes a tardigrade(1)
Of survival extinct

A walnut field in hollow valleys
A prayer pew in fragile sublimation
A folktale swirling lineage in rhymes
A wind raging to rangoli rhapsodies
A mother’s imperfect bosom shields
A cluster of blooming peppercorns
A fort awakened to footsteps sound
A river rising uphill to the poets’ cry
A cadaver leavened by half dialects
A marigold million in tandav(2) strides

A country in bereavement
Becomes an apothecary
Of effervescent sights
Becomes a tardigrade
Of survival extinct.

                                                            ~ Kashiana Singh 

                                                                  Vernon Hills, USA

1. Tarigrade – Tardigrades are micro animals that have survived all five mass extinctions. This has given them a plethora of survival characteristics, including the ability to survive situations that would be fatal to almost all other.
2. Tandav – Dance of Lord Shiva that is a symbol of the cycle of creation, preservation, and dissolution.