The Flood

The water flows to any place, Flooding the land en way; Submerging roads, bridges and fields, Filling the wells and lakes; It spares no one and humans too, Neither the beasts nor trees; Carrying the garbage and rubbish And the entire sewage of state; Whole villages have been cut off; Many have been marooned; Shelterless and starving in the cold; Some clutch on to pieces of wood; And stay alive for some more time, Afraid to lose their hold; There’s no water to even drink; The people are all stark-naked; And all they see is sea-water, No food is in sight for many miles; Oh, what havoc, the storm has wrought On a state so poor! So many fishermen are lost; And many must have died; Perched atop trees dangerously, Birds too have not been spared; They have lost their nests in trees; And eggs and young ones as well; The rain is pouring incessantly; None can escape its brunt; The state is cut into ‘islets’, With corpses, carcasses afloat; The air is filled by malodor; The stench unfit to breathe; Many human lives have lost in flood, The place is diseases-prone; Should nature be so unkind To human beings on earth? Help seems to come at a snail’s speed; Thousands were swept alive; No one knows the numbers lost; A pall of gloom covers; Will the flood-waters ever recede? Will the sun dry up the land? Lakhs of houses have been washed off; God help the poor victims! Copyright by Dr John Celes 12-8-1999