Saturday, April 24, 2010

Summer Rain an older poem (2000)by Baiju

Summer Rain


When the flowers of my garden
Gasp in the cruel hands of summer,
When dreams and desires
Start withering away in the heat,

When memories boil, I wait,
Like a rain bird searching for
A drop of water and life...
A Gentle kiss of north wind...

Then come the dreams... dry and red
To bleed my silent gentle sleep.
A spider trapping the 'Questions
Of Gargi*' with its killing Net.

The abandoned finger of Ekalavya**,
Children playing on a dry river 'land'...
My love, the gentle breezes are gone...
Come and hug me, We'll wait for the summer rains.

* Gargi - symbol of true questions in vedas. She challenged the sage Yajnavalkya with perturbing questions on the atman (soul).

** Ekalavya - Drona, the Guru demands that Ekalavya turn over his right thumb as a teacher's fee. The loyal Ekalavya cripples himself, and thereby ruins his prospects as an archer, by severing his thumb and giving it to Drona.