The Unsung Lullabies

~ The Unsung Lullabies ~

Light free feathery
She wished to be...
Surrendering every umbilical cord
She left the Manasarovar

Wandered north on stegodons
Birthed the deodars
Abandoned them as winters encumbered

Flowed southwards along young rivers
Burying slow giant tortoises, hippopotami,
and four-horned giraffes
Taming the snouts of gharials

Grooved she like Gangetic dolphins
Chasing saber-tooth cats
Uprooting all their double-edged swords
To slash volcanic peaks and forge extinctions

She cut open the Earth's womb
Exposing the Naga Loka
Enraging Ardhanarishwara
Whom she barely acknowledged

Nesting the crescent moon's Nilgiris
Wafted she... disguised beneath a cloak
Of eucalyptus and cardamom
Towards the ocean...
Morose, empty, heavy!

She sank the mongrel
That hath loyally mirrored her footsteps
Since genesis...
A time when no notion of freedom or bondage
Had deceived her
A time when wishes never transformed into greed
Yet lighter, seldom could she be.

A world that always had
One foot mid-air, worshipped her
While the other christened her lunatic.

High above, beside some moons
A hand of hers clutched the door to heaven
Another... hell
Yet, she waited... strung...

Watching Mother Earth
As she never had before
Enduring all the burden
Still preserving
Every ounce of love

A sunflower bloomed above the graves enormous

Thus began she...
Humming all the lullabies
That spread like moonlight
Over dark haunting nights
Humming all the lullabies
She once never wished to sing!

As the Sivaliks, the Karnali, the Aravallis,
The Ken, Luni, Chambal, Banas—
The floodplains, The Satpuras, the Deccan Traps,
The Gayatri, Savitri, Godavari, Tungabhadra, Kaveri,
The Kanyakumari, Anaimalai, Arunachalam and Agni Teertham
Fell asleep...

Light free feathery,
She floated... above the Manasarovar

Eventually... became she...
A mother!

©Vivek Dubey
viv_dubey@yahoo.com