Clouds

Bearers of speeding winds.
Fluffed by swirling mist and vapour.
I see you departing now,
To your new world of far away.

Looking like the land of night!
When will you return to me again?
Wherever you arrive,
In some new budding life,
I know, you will put newer life.

Thin and meager, even dying, with sultry heat,
When the parched ground has turned into stone,
I see you with your outstretched hand,
Showering nectar from your boundless cape.

How behind the veil of darkness,
The sound of your lightning: claps and plays!
Before the mango bloom returns,
In your constant order,
Will you show up on my grange?

The mirror of my inner eye will continue
Reminiscing your bygone days…
When I had bathed on the mossy steps
Of my lawn, through happy life at last!

Alibaug
1996

Geeta Chhabra

From the book: No Journey Ends by Geeta Chhabra