Ecopoetry

They discuss and I smile On hearing them, Their talk, What are they discussing? Ecopoetry I have been trading Since my childhood When I found as a child The vultures dropping And unable to fly, Wanted to know the reason But none said it about. The hilly ranges which were With tigers Were denuded as for the stone crushers And stone chips And the forest trees were cut down, Once a stray deer was spotted, That too was eaten up by people. The depleting number of blue birds Used to distress me As was a lover of it And used to search The amla, behera and haritika, Trifala churna trees. In my childhood the hilly rivulet Used to flow with a chatter But that music ceased it to be In the days to come. Many a tree, age-old tree I saw it felled and hewn Telling of a century Being taken to saw mills. Mindless urbanization, Rampant industrialization took A heavy toll upon The landscapes and greenery And for them man deserted it all For greed and avarice. Again to my astonishment I saw the house sparrows Falling in number As for concretization, Cemented houses Rather than straw-huts and cottages.