To The Bird Of Heaven Poem by Chandrani Dutta Das

O bird of heaven, answer my quest,
Why did you come to me once more?
I was happy in my desert,
It had no oasis but it had no mirage,
Why did you fly in to my desert
With mirage and dreams of oasis?
You ever knew you had to leave.

How much shattered you left me,
If ever you could dream.
My eyes were dried afore like my throat,
But now they are in tears.
I had fallen in love with the heaven.
My eyes had adorned dreams of it,
Like the caged bird who dreams of freedom.

I belong to the world caged and chained.
It was a fault of mine of which I suffer.
Why did mine eyes dream of freedom?
Why did mine eyes dream of the heaven?
Why did mine eyes long to be there?
I had forgot I don't deserve the welkin,
I have rights only to be chained and to suffer.

You had been a mirage, an euphoric dream.
That was though beautiful, yet false.
And I repent being driven by that mirage
To a world that can never be mine, nor I its.
My world is the desert and I belong to it
Though lonely, yet it is true, very true.
It is mine, my own, my own world.

Fly away, O bird of heaven,
To the world as divine as yours,
Leave me, let me where I stay,
Let me alone, let my hands gather strength
To comfort mine eyes, to wipe mine tears,
Allow me peace, let me lie buried
In my own world, in my own grave.

Pray, don't bring any more dreams for me.
I will be much happy aimlessly, dreamless.
The world is a hollow bubble of air,
And I fear building sand castle in them.
My eyes are tired dreaming dreams
And then viewing them break like a pack of cards.
For nothing in life hurts as much as
The loss of an oasis, the breaking of a mirage, a dream.