Removed from fear,
Away from the cunning,
Unpursued – the Falcon feels
A King on his home-terrain.
Here, he is nature’s special child.

 

Slaying the fiercest winds,
The sound of the amethyst sands
Softly picks up his regal wings,
And to his ethereal abode:
The old hand always flies.

 

Maddest in joy with the bounty
Of countless banquets –
The Sovereign’s Bird seems ungrasped –
By his ancestor’s remembering nightmares,
When they were the prey.

 

However the night attacks –
The chill upon the heat
Never gets to hear his sound of sleeping.
Ever-alert from everywhere –
His twinkled eye commands hold
Of the most puzzling skies!

 

Ajman
1996

 

Geeta Chhabra

(From the book: An Indian Ode to The Emirates by Geeta Chhabra)