VALSA GEORGE

 

 

Is Death So Near

 

From the far end of the cosmos

I looked down searching for my home,

The earth, once a magical land

Against my expectations,

Was telescoped into view

As an arid world, sterile and desiccated,

With no flowing blue waters.

 

Trees felled down like torn pages

Some stood with yellowing leaves

Not dew, but tears dripped down from their tips

As if struggling through the last lap of autumn

Some stayed naked devoid of foliage

As if just made it through the winter

Songbirds no more sang

Dusty soot filled the air

 

Sun- stood a flaming inferno

Day, scorched in its violent fury

Despair greets me as a prologue to the day

And ends with an epilogue of the night

All I saw was the comatose of life

All I heard was the faint whisper of a dying earth!

 

The signs are written everywhere

In the melting icecaps, in polluted water bodies

In the exhausted breath of woodlands!

 

If we are careful, we can still preserve this fragile earth,

If we guard it, not as masters, but as guests,

Who stay here as sojourners

And have to vacate it for the posterity.

It should never become a bane for them

But a boon, tended with love and care.

 

A Carnival Night

 

Under the inky façade of the night sky,

With reluctant steps, I joined the stream of men

Flowing to the place of the great celebration

 

A huge crowd had already thronged the temple premises

Its vicinity, bursting with colour and lightening

The young and the old, clad in festal attire,

With fire in their hearts and festive sheen in their eyes

Not driven by piety, but mostly to enjoy the fanfare.

 

Festoons decorated the trees that lined the compound

Colourful lamps were blinking everywhere

Sacred bells kept chiming intermittent

At the auspicious hour, as devotional songs rent the air

The chief deity was brought out of the shrine

And was placed on the caparisoned elephant

Accompanied by pulsating percussion ensemble

The devotees cheered witnessing the majestic entourage.

 

Within them the fervid spring of joy swelled

Colourful umbrellas were being unfurled,

Drawing synchronized patterns in the air

 

An army of hawkers had already set up shops

Each made it a time to earn some bucks

Selling knickknacks and goodies- from ice creams

To popcorn and colourful balloons, to tempt children

They ran around licking cotton candies

Some enjoyed blowing up soap bubbles

Iridescent orbs landing softly on their hair and dress.

 

Under the glare and noise, the heat and sweat

Amid the tumultuous beat of trumpets

And the rhythmic sounding of cymbals

The crowd swayed in psychedelic lassitude

 

I was just a mute witness to the whole hullabaloo

Amid the faceless crowd, I stood aloof, so aloof

With an abysmal loneliness festering inside.

I hoped the carnival would help me forget the past

And drown my scalding pain, but sad memories

Follow me close to my heels like a mangy mongrel.

Deep down, how I wished I was part of the revelry!

 

 

VALSA GEORGE

 

VALSA GEORGE is a retired professor from Kerala. After her successful career as a teacher, she took to poetry. She writes on a wide spectrum of topics spanning Nature, Love, Human relations et al. She has authored over 1500 poems in varied poetic forms which she regularly posts in international poetry websites, reputed journals, and literary publications. She has four anthologies in her name - Beats, Drop of a Feather, Rainbow Hues, and Entwining Shadows the latter two available on Amazon.com. One of her poems ‘A space Odyssey’ has been included in the CBSE syllabus (Rain Tree Course Book by Orient Black Swan) for the 8^th grade students in India from the year 2018. Another poem ‘My Fractured Identity’ is prescribed for the undergraduate students (Voyagers) in Philippines