SUMITRA MISHRA

 

The Hyacinth

 

They travelled long miles

Down the river stream

Sailing like dark floating islands

Bobbing over rapids!!!

I stood on the bank watching them in wonder

As the sun was sinking through the grey clouds

The river turned from brown to gold to red to violet

It seemed to me

As if rain was tearing away the Hyacinth bushes

From the heart of some forests

And floating it down to the ocean

Like boys floating paper boats in the water streams

The rubbery vines, round leaves and tangled roots

Clogged the waterways

As they adhered to the banks

Trying to grow their clan

Faster than men can destroy!!!

 

They floated bravely

 Afraid of neither the rapids nor the rains

They were the fruits of the river

They scattered their seed uncannily on their downward route,

I understood wearily

Propagation is the law of nature

Nothing can control or decontrol it

Be it pills, condoms, tubes, ties or severance

Like the Hyacinth

Man and Nature will grow

And beget their clan

Till Mother Earth spins round the Sun!!!

 

The Grey Cells

 

The grey cells of my brain

Are part of the ceilings of my house,

I can see the tiny spider weaving a nest in the corner

As I can feel a spider with long legs

Weaving tales and meta tales inside my mind.

I see a sparrow

through the pieces of blue outside the window

The moon is hanging on the branches of the coconut tree,

Or are they just meaningless collages of my imagination?

 

Inside my grey cells

The whole essence of the white ceiling

Is immersed in a turquoise blue I love,

The whole essence of the house vibrates

With a musical note I hate.

 

The scent of spring floats in through the window

I understand the musical notes fairly well

The photo frames move memories,

It’s difficult to forget

The hazards of playing that harmonium during rain.

 

SUMITRA MISHRA

 

Dr SUMITRA MISHRA is a Retired Principal and Professor of English from Bhubaneswar, Odisha! She is a bilingual writer who has published books both in English and Odia! She has to her credit 7 anthologies of English poetry and one book of English short stories published by Authors press, Delhi! The names of her books being Penelope’s Web, Flames of Silence, The Soul of Fire, Still the Stones Sing, The Red Moon, Roses and Bruises, Whispering Shadows & Reminiscence! Dr Mishra has to her credit  7 anthologies of poems, 6 collections of short stories, 3 full pledged plays and 3 books of translation published in Odia, that’s her mother tongue!!!