The Dried Up Lake Poem by Prithwish Biswas

Look at the dried up lake near my village, it beholds many sad memories.
From my birth this river was present and it has one mystery, one that I can't figure out.
Every Indian village holds many forbidden secret about conspiracy, ghost, and witches.
When I was 10 yrs old I was playing the river.
No one was there.
I met her first time at the lake I thought she was an angel made from water.
She was my first friend I named her Padmabati.
I named her b'coz the way she came up from the water like lotus.
She didn't have any words in her lips but there was smile.
Every day I came there for talk, play and when there is any sadness.
One morning on my 13th birthday she showed me a trick called water work which was same as fire works with reflection of different bright colors.
Today, if I remember those days my chest feels painful.
It was pandit moshai's family aparted me from her.
If that lady didn't have shouted then she would be alive.
And it was pandit moshai's family who said it was a witch.
Padmabati didn't commit any crime.
All the villagers killed her without any mercy.
What can a 14 yr old boy can fight with 10 people?
Today standing here makes me as responsible for the action.
In the first place if I didn't meet her then in my life this couldn't have happened.
Today, I saw it in many story books as sea nymph.