SWAPNA BEHERA

 

In Conversation With A Coffin.......

 

why are you not crying?

are you a sadist or an atheist?

who is inside your white belly?

to whom have you swallowed this time

 

to which country does he belong to?

what is his gender?

was he amicable or hostile?

a friend or foe?

has he got natural death

suicide or

homicide?

 

where does he die?

in a hospital or in an accident

does he belong to this country or that?

how old is he?

does he have children?

is his death covered by insurance poicy?

 

the coffin replied

“I don’t know who he is

I carry death

that has

 no gender

no home

no family

 no job

no children

 no country

I carry death 

 neither a victim nor a victor

just a dot sleeping .....

in the cosmic galaxy

jotting and singing la la la .....”

 

The Red Hibiscus Is Dying...

Near the river a twisted road

Submerges in rains

And with Kash flowers

Before the Immersion of Devi Durga

 

A flock of villages beyond the river

The hanging bamboo bridge

The dingdong investment

In the ether by the bullocks

 

Snake and ladder chessboard

A red Hibiscus of the hemlocks

Vibrant; sensuous

Nature’s blatant flower

Melody of jhumar with bucolic leaves

Earthen pots on her head

Exotic smell of castor oil

Beating of the drums

The rhythm of their dances

 

A noxious jerk in the frame

Dawn was vicious red

Hibiscus still redder

The impassionate lust

Of the grinning smokes

 

Marketed in retail price

Of globalisation

The last hibiscus on the sand;

Legs apart, immersed forever

In the dying river of the history

 

My Funeral Rhyme

 

Before my death

This is my funeral rhyme

Oh! Dearest souls close to my heart

Dear Nature, my mother

 

A Rhyme that will consummate

the last rituals of the first Anthem

The hymn will blubber my calligraphy

as a bairn I drudged on this earth

 

My soul woven by the

tenuous fibres of the cosmos

My bones encrusted with

the flesh of the green pastures

My humble invitation to the seasons

to lacerate my flesh

 

I am a soul risen from the fire

flying in the air with the fragrance of love

Saturated by the life line of water

This is my funeral rhyme

Composed with my blood and marrow

 

Dearest lovely elements

Nothing is mine

I brought nothing and will carry nothing

My life was never a conundrum

But a Pandora box where I saved the gifts of all

 

My blood writes the will of gratitude

Please give the retina of my eyeballs

to the blind girl across the river

who whispers the melody of eternal love

I have heard her songs sitting on the river sand

 

Let my organs be donated

Let my ashes flutter like a butterfly

And wake up from hibernation

Let my words dance

to scribble the poetry of love

The eternal rhyme

Forever and ever - -

 

SWAPNA BEHERA

 

SWAPNA BEHERA is a trilingual contemporary poet, author, translator, environmentalist and editor from Odisha, India. She is a retired teacher of Kendriya vidyalaya .  She has penned seven books of different genres including one children's literature on Environment. She is the recipient of the International Mother Language UGADI AWARD WINNER 2019, honoured from Gujurat Sahitya Akademi , International Poesis Award of Honor at the 2nd Bharat Award for Literature as Jury in 2015, The Enchanting Muse Award in India World Poetree Festival 2017, World Icon of Peace Award in 2017, and the Pentasi B World Fellow Poet in 2017.. ATAL BIHARI BAJPAYEE, Mahatma Surja Kumar Karfarma Memorial Honor, International Life Time Achievement Award the Honoured Poet of India from the Seychelles Government accredited Literary Society LLSF and from Algeria,Morocco,Kajhakhstan ,modern Arabic Literary Renaissance of  Egypt ,Argentina etc. Her stories, poems and articles are widely published in National and International journals, and ezines, and are translated into multiple languages. Her one poem A NIGHT IN THE REFUGEE CAMP is translated into 67 languages. At present She is the Chief Admn of Motivational Strips for India and Middle East zone and the Cultural Ambassador for India and South Asia of Inner Child Press U.S. She is the Cultural Convenor &Literary Coordinator of   International Society for Intercultural Studies and Research ISISAR of Eastern India and  the life member of Odisha Environmental Society