Lake and stream, Chinar and blossom / All sing a dirge as though

The Paradise belonged wholly now / To the elegy of the weeping willow

PROF BADRI RAINA | Caravan Daily                                                

Is this now a paradise lost

To an ancient contention?

A clanging of frozen wills

Where all is lost and nothing won?

Relentless crones in safe enclaves

Send nubile angels to war

Against an uncaring distant state

That seems  light years afar.

Spots of blood on haunted streets

Invite the lurking vulture;

Windows barred in dread and shame

Protect a beleaguered culture.

Faces pelleted with holes

Are stoic in hopeless time;

Flesh and bone come apart

But spirits scream a defiant rhyme.

Love, trust, and covenant

Seem powerless to leap

The contest for ownership

Even if the price be fatally steep,

Lake and stream, Chinar and blossom

All sing a dirge as though

The Paradise belonged wholly now

To the elegy of the weeping willow.