A Tragic Delineation Of A Tree Poem by DILIPBHASKER MATHRA

I often behold those shadows
Sometimes long sometimes short
When the rumbling wind sways
Over the landscape with uncertain accents.
Those were the shadows of a tree
Tall and dark with outgrown foliage
Entangled above the road, then enfolded
Like dark winged ghost over the flag post
At the end of the old parade ground
Where we played cricket every Sunday
During our bygone days.
Long years of steady growth, perhaps
Even much older than my child hood,
The tree developed a haughty gigantic syndrome.
It was like a story teller striding through
Long rudimentary walk of life of past and present.
And thriving through rain or wind or scorching sun.
But I couldn’t guess its gracious presence
Even I am nearer to the path of old.
Thus the glimpse of the tree I couldn’t or did try to know
That paradox is still the matter of sorrow.
It had the voice which night winds minstrelled
When lonely birds sit on it.
And had the feeling of mystic melody
When the birds sing on its bows during
The closing of the night.
Sometimes I feel even the tree has
A human heart where humble happiness,
Endeared in hope or charm and pride,
For living long amidst the hunters of the nature.
All the sun long days it was a lovely home,
With cheerful murmurs of reposing shade seekers
Without strange passion or partiality.
Peace of great heaven had joined here
To make a new way to rejoice.
One day, on a rainy night there was a serious blow
Of cyclonic storm from the far sea side
Violent clattering and breaking sound
And lightning flashed in darkness.
In morning when the Sun grew round and red
Under the clouds, everyone startled to see
The uprooted great tree crashed down on the parade ground.
Its thick tops and pendent branches
Trailed their broken foliage across the road.
I couldn’t wait and watch for long
Such a shattered ecstasy with pensive pain.
When I reached home I saw tears in my old mother’s eyes
She murmured in grief “that tree had your brother’s soul
As his burial is beneath the root of the tree”.