Bekal Fort Poem by Satish Pendharkar

A Sentinel posted to guard
A hysterical hinterland
You have stood unblinking;
Unmoved for centuries
Therefore the waves pay obeisance
Touching, washing your feet
While wild grasses and ferns
Luxuriate on your torso
And moss ravages your protuberant chin.

Your razor-sharp nose
Tourists negotiate laboriously
Steadily losing their breath
To arrive at your forehead
Their reward: Having their breath
Snatched away - The sight of
The crescent-shaped golden beach
Manna for the blistered eyes

A fathomless reservoir of energy
Are you; enduring all day long
The profusion of footfalls
Like a postal-stamp
Defaced by a dozen seals

And then at sunset
When the chattering crowds have gone
You longingly shift your gaze
Now the infinite waters
Now the shimmering sands
Oh, how you yearn
To strum the fronds
Of the palms quickened
By the sough of the sea-breeze!










A Sentinel posted to guard
A hysterical hinterland
You have stood unblinking;
Unmoved for centuries
Therefore the waves pay obeisance
Touching, washing your feet
While wild grasses and ferns
Luxuriate on your torso
And moss ravages your protuberant chin.

Your razor-sharp nose
Tourists negotiate laboriously
Steadily losing their breath
To arrive at your forehead
Their reward: Having their breath
Snatched away - The sight of
The crescent-shaped golden beach
Manna for the blistered eyes

A fathomless reservoir of energy
Are you; enduring all day long
The profusion of footfalls
Like a postal-stamp
Defaced by a dozen seals

And then at sunset
When the chattering crowds have gone
You longingly shift your gaze
Now the infinite waters
Now the shimmering sands
Oh, how you yearn
To strum the fronds
Of the palms quickened
By the sough of the sea-breeze!









A Sentinel posted to guard
A hysterical hinterland
You have stood unblinking;
Unmoved for centuries
Therefore the waves pay obeisance
Touching, washing your feet
While wild grasses and ferns
Luxuriate on your torso
And moss ravages your protuberant chin.

Your razor-sharp nose
Tourists negotiate laboriously
Steadily losing their breath
To arrive at your forehead
Their reward: Having their breath
Snatched away - The sight of
The crescent-shaped golden beach
Manna for the blistered eyes

A fathomless reservoir of energy
Are you; enduring all day long
The profusion of footfalls
Like a postal-stamp
Defaced by a dozen seals

And then at sunset
When the chattering crowds have gone
You longingly shift your gaze
Now the infinite waters
Now the shimmering sands
Oh, how you yearn
To strum the fronds
Of the palms quickened
By the sough of the sea-breeze!









A Sentinel posted to guard
A hysterical hinterland
You have stood unblinking;
Unmoved for centuries
Therefore the waves pay obeisance
Touching, washing your feet
While wild grasses and ferns
Luxuriate on your torso
And moss ravages your protuberant chin.

Your razor-sharp nose
Tourists negotiate laboriously
Steadily losing their breath
To arrive at your forehead
Their reward: Having their breath
Snatched away - The sight of
The crescent-shaped golden beach
Manna for the blistered eyes

A fathomless reservoir of energy
Are you; enduring all day long
The profusion of footfalls
Like a postal-stamp
Defaced by a dozen seals

And then at sunset
When the chattering crowds have gone
You longingly shift your gaze
Now the infinite waters
Now the shimmering sands
Oh, how you yearn
To strum the fronds
Of the palms quickened
By the sough of the sea-breeze!









A Sentinel posted to guard
A hysterical hinterland
You have stood unblinking;
Unmoved for centuries
Therefore the waves pay obeisance
Touching, washing your feet
While wild grasses and ferns
Luxuriate on your torso
And moss ravages your protuberant chin.

Your razor-sharp nose
Tourists negotiate laboriously
Steadily losing their breath
To arrive at your forehead
Their reward: Having their breath
Snatched away - The sight of
The crescent-shaped golden beach
Manna for the blistered eyes

A fathomless reservoir of energy
Are you; enduring all day long
The profusion of footfalls
Like a postal-stamp
Defaced by a dozen seals

And then at sunset
When the chattering crowds have gone
You longingly shift your gaze
Now the infinite waters
Now the shimmering sands
Oh, how you yearn
To strum the fronds
Of the palms quickened
By the sough of the sea-breeze!