Babylon….. Poem by ROOP REKHA BHASKAR

Mother Uruq reclines.
Arteries blue, Euphrates and Tigris, running through her heart.
Like, two off springs, playing side by side.
Century’s bygone, now her children seem sad and juvenile
Like stranded tears on realm’s cheek;
Her hour glass flowed with rebellious blood,
Instead of the golden sands of time.

I rocked the cradle of Mesopotamia,
I held the roots of civilization;
Once proud I stood, holding laurels in hand.
Mankind! forget not- You learnt to read and write from my lap.
Yet now my frame aches to see, the irony;
My children have no books, no school to their name.

Pythagoras and Aristotle, You summed up well,
While I insignificantly gave birth to ratios and equations.
I delivered the hours, the minute, the days.
Swept the sky into 12 zodiacs.
Worked with math, manning the planets move.
I gave logic to constellations and Astronomy.
Now I am eclipsed by an exodus on my land,
Even the great Hammurabi couldn’t code the laws for crimes as this.

Sumerian, Babylonian, and Parthian - I shared my plate with thee;
A Roman, Afsharid, Ottoman were all greeted by me.
Kingdoms thrived with wealth, intellect and dignity.
Now my eyes more dry than the Tigris trickle.
As I see my children scatter the banks.


The Ishtar Gates broke, my Marduk Temple crumpled, my Lions all died.
My Garden, one of the 7 wonders, lay hanging beneath the sand and sea.
Do you remember Isaiah…..Jeremiah? The Prophecy….?
So like a phoenix I shall rise from the Shinar,
To take you once more from whence you came.