Chilika - My Dream! Poem by Prem Surya Kumar

What makes you look so cheerless, Chilika,
Why your vast expanse looks so deadly still?
Or have you lost the key to your eternal charm,
Are you unaware of Spring? of cuckoo's trill?

Where are those birds that flocked each winter
Upon your inviting breast so warm, so rich!
The pelican, the crane, the stork and halcyon
That plucked from there your bounties of fish?

Where are those fish, so vivid, so varied
That played in and out of your crystal foam?
Where is your fragrance of purest jasmine
That enticed me here from my distant home?

It can't be your water is now livid, putrid
Where shoals of dead fish now float by the score;
Can't bear to see this ghastly sight, O Chilika -
Show me just once your smile of yore! !