Jackals' Calls At The Wee Hours. Poem by Debendra Majhi

I no more hear the jackals' long calls,
At the wee hours or at the nights' fall.
Neither do they sing spells at unison,
As errand- boys of the rising sun.

Bushes, anabadis, aadis-uplands,
And the shrinkage of gauchar wastelands.
All their fragmented habitats gone,
Grabbed and colonized as greedy conversion.

Homeless wanderers with habitat loss,
No swamp crabs or terrapin to munch.
Traverse to domains of human domination,
Caught between canines and hunger pangs.

Pesticides has butchered ills of the crops,
Riverine turtles, marsh mongoose and otters.
Entire faunal diversity is in perilous exit,
Floral pool also on the way to extinct.

Infamous furtive mammals held hostage,
By the superior mammals of the new-age.
I no more hear the chorus and the rhythm,
Congregational symphony of village ecosystem.


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