Rabbit and Rose
California Redwood, majestic with rough bark
But it spreads a shadow, the oaks need to bend
To access the sun's smile
Eucalyptus with chalk white bark Here planted in not native soil An outsider, maybe an alien or an unwelcome guest It&@39;s bark no longer strong and solid But have you forgotten your first kiss in it's grove Or the scent saturating your Saturday morning
And as I meander further along Strawberry Creek-the junction of the north and south branches hear the gurgles my mind meanders to the great rivers I studied in geography The Ganga and the Yamuna, flowing from mythology to today's metropolis Once the pinnacle of purity, now in the plains-plagued with the decomposing dead and dirt of men and women coming to cleanse their sins
On the bank of Strawberry creek, someone points Honey suckle with tiny berries - other shrubs I cannot identify And I long for the georgeous Gulmohar with flaming red corolla or the evening air filled with the scent of fresh jasmines The blanket of stars I could see from our 2nd floor flat in Mumbai and the sparrows sitting on the window sill Dawn - the murder of crows flying formation together The air carriers-my blue angels when I was four
But now I return to Mumbai
The silence of the absence of sparrows
Filled by car horns and megaphones blasting music
And the night fills with halogen lamps and
neon advertisements
The stars of my childhood beyond sight
And the laborer plucking fruits in the field under the scorching sun Or hammering a board at a construction site or within a house Is now like the eucalyptus tree---unwelcome And he too breaks bit by bit