The Banyan Tree

Under which we used to sit and play Leading to the hoses Of the hamlet Where the birds used To be nested in And whose roots Used to hang by There Under the shade of the banyan tree So stemming With a circumference, So age-old and mighty, Heavily-branched and logged Ewe used to pass the midday Of the hot summer When the loo used to ruffle us, The mud houses used to be Humid and perspiring We used to play, pause by And pass time Was cut down One day, The loggers, Wood-cutters came they And the family members Agreed to sell off The joint property When the population outnumbered And it urbanized, The villages started taking The position of townships, Btu it could not be In a day, They first started cutting, Chopping off the tiny branches Then the logs And finally pulling it down The stem Hewing with a saw And with the cutting Of it, The memories obliterated it, The memories of ancestors, Village-forefathers And childhood memories.