Raj Arumugam Poems

There is a boy and he walks to the grove. He has heard the bird.
He does not smile. He’s used to long hours of criticism and harshness.
But he has heard the bird and he is enchanted by the chirping and the warbling.
...

It is night.
The moon glows above the grove. There is another moon too in the pond.
The stars too glow, scattered all over the expansive sky.
...

It is day. It is a hot day.
The Desirer walks into the grove.
The Desirer is in dark clothes and his head is covered with a hood.
One cannot see the Desirer’s face.
...

There is the grove. The bamboo grove with its open ground and pond.
The bamboo is rich and luxuriant.
But the bird is not there.
The precious bird is not there to sing its songs.
...

The girl Child is in the grove. She does not hear the bird in the bamboo grove.
She does not see the bird.

She sings the song the bird sang her once:
...

The girl Child has been looking for the bird in the grove.
But the bird is nowhere to be seen.

There in between stones near the pond are some chrysanthemum petals.
...

Girl Child and Ha Ha boy walk a long way. At last they come to Chrysanthemum Fields.

“Was it not of these fields”, says Ha Ha boy, “that the bird sang once?
...

And Ha Ha boy and girl Child walk to Grim Land.
And they walk through dust and rain and sun.
But they do not tire, for they sing to themselves the songs of the bird at the grove.
...

Ha Ha boy and girl Child arrive at the gates of Grim Land.

Ha Ha boy and girl Child walk into Grim Land.
The people do not smile.
...

And the King orders the soldiers to immediately release the bird from its golden cage. And the bird flies over the kingdom and it sings its song:

Love you
gentle beings all
...