SILENCE

What haunts me 
is the silence behind the flutter 
of those leaves at the far end of the jungle
that shed drops of tears to mourn the hapless poor
who died under their tattered quilts of a Winter 
making us prisoners of a freezing time;

as we hibernate under warm blankets of love
in the cosy comfort of homes
but voicelessly seethe deep within ,
consecrated inside a strange silence herein:

at the roots of grass drying in our courtyard, 
tips of blossoms fading in our garden, 
lips of lovers parted ,
isolation of humans tainted,
precipice of hills wounded,
in the heart of the rivers that have fainted,
in womb of crops that like female fetuses
before yielding, have so hastily wilted…

now we fail to catch the silence in our breath 
while trying to grow intimate with Nature 
that has estranged us because of our nature,
from its elements comprising the life force;
is it the silence of a futile remorse
or an awakening to strive for the real hidden sauce?

Comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi