My Longing For Similipal Poem by Prafulla Kumar Panda

This catty morning
when the sluggish sun
missed its battalion
a gush of chill wind rushed
into my dingy room
and paralysed my limbs
as they lie shivering
like scared mice;
though
i am away by a thousand mile
from heaps of indolence
my mind smiles
to climb past every rock
to reach at the Similipal top
where murmuring of the fountain
outstrips the cacophony of modern men.

when both the sun and the cloud
have climbed down the lavender blue
and elbowed the thick mists
that dash against the tall sal trees
like tides of seas
they scream loud
being haughty and proud
to kiss her with their head bowed.
i touch the feet of my graceful mother
and seek her blessings rather
lifting the veil from her exuberant countenance
she embraces me to whisper
her thousand years of coexistence
with hares, hedgehogs, gaurs, deer,
and the hopping monkey
that hops unto her shoulder
to caress
and stoke flowers on her shady border
while the elephants, and the Bengal tigers
guarding her majestic edifice
with peacocks, orioles and crows inside
and the busy cuckoos
that readily compose fresh music daily to recite.

by her hand in my hand she leads
through the red zigzag way
while offering bits of dainties to relish
to assuage my pains and to make me sway;
round and round I hop around
amidst the humming and chirping sound
sipping the nectar all around
for such celestial bliss where to be found?

she waits not
like the village lass
for this winter to pass
as she has attained womanhood with
nibbles and buds
that hangs loose unto her chest
when her kindness has taken deep roots
the devil nowhere sprouts;
while the imprints of silence
in all its pervading countenance
raise her self-prominence.

O Mother!
you are poised
unhurt and immortal
above disease and warts
for you welcome and accustom every season
and nurture no jealousy,
hate, calumny or inflict pain like my men.
grow higher and higher and you will never expire
as you are serene and never do perspire.

for her,
the love my heart does bear
to go five years from hither towards rear
and has thrived afresh until now along with her stature;
for me,
her blessing and care are still to galore
from hence for a life time to store
when I am estranged or gone afar
my soul longs to sit in the lap of her.

(Similipal is a National Park and Tiger Reserve situated in Mayurbhanj, Odisha, India)
©P.K.Panda, India
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