One Sultry Summer Day Poem by DEEPAK KUMAR PATTANAYAK

To beat sultry summer day and seek the seclusion of another world
We friends once went after wood
Deliberating beforehand to stay a day or two with things wild
To explore the wood far and wide
And the clear sky as deep and blue as sea
Above how it looked with the leaf-laden branches and flowers that
arched their canopy
Of green and gold beneath the canopy of the blue sky
And counting our dreams within the hermitage of Nature so grand yet shy
Deep and deeper we went and saw a deer
Standing still as if entranced by the music of a flute rare
Where our willing feet stopped a while
And our senses for a moment held in its thrall to see it all
Then a little farther on there were two elephants
Seemed one male and another female so elegant
Beneath that oak tree
They were exchanging their first love and kiss free
There prevailed a coolness despite the heat of the day
And we loved the trees for the shadow they cast in hospitable way
And the wood for its silence
And mildness displayed in the blazing noon seemed more than stately kindness
Then a little farther on we saw some green logs laid side by side
And a hearth made thereupon for burning wood
And some people sitting together one on each side
Of the fireplace, talking with voices low and whispered
When seeing his flame the moth from nowhere brightened
And fluttered over into it and died
Along the fitful breeze and through the trees
Play the fickle shadows in troops and whose
Cool caress pushed us farther on to a place
Where an angler was seen sitting by a stream in stillness
With a hook to catch a fish decoying his tricks
But for its fascination for taste the fish-novice
Was seen toiling to get off his hook futilely
As pensive we walked and walked through and beneath the shadowy
Tree until our willing feet appealed us to stop a while
Not weary and restless but with zest waiting to see the sun's sparkle
The sun was almost hidden but not low in the west
Though the sky looked rimmed with color like an amulet
And we thought the sun gradually dropping down
Away from us with rose-light tender but then
It was there still promising more luster even
When we saw beauties and gems along wayside with wild flowers yellowish-green
And irregular, showy in large panicles and in clusters
Blooming beneath the tall trees
And a bee over a flower-bed dipping and sipping and dying at his treasure
Being hypnotized by the fragrant power
Or the beauty of the flower
Or the sweet of the bower is best known to him and his maker
With this our sojourn like a dream was done
When we returned, we did come back alone but with allusions
And now the sky was fine-tuned with many a color
As the sun was setting down to its shelter-reverie
Way back home we mused upon many things
Like allusions made to that outing
For how often we see and go by our traps
That deer and elephants and others
Were victims of all five senses essential?
Like sound, touch, form, taste and smell
What then must be the fate that awaits man?
Who is under the spell of their five-fold domain……