Endless Tragedy

There was a grand-father tamarind tree In front of my ancestral home Pointing a bare finger into the sky In the grey of monsoon drizzle Early in the morning A brooding crow which had a hole in one of its wings Used to perch on it That was my pre-teen childhood When I had two aunts With two cows – one white and the other grey Whose calves were my constant companions As I wandered in surrounding woods Watching birds laboring at their nests We had kerosene lamps then Under which I used to mug up lessons When I looked askance at the sky The orange Arcturus Winked at me from Bootes Leaves giggled in the wind My dad took his pompous strolls In the sprawling courtyard Watching if I misbehaved As mom garnished Chutney for breakfast Spreading dosas on the pan Those were beautiful days Which I took for granted Would ever remain Unchanged through to endless time But, alas, as time sped As I witnessed my body change Through teenage to adulthood Each of the things I loved Vanished one after another Mom and dad were washed away In the tides of time So were the aunts Someone axed the tamarind tree The crow made homeless perished The cows and calves too disappeared Into the hungry bowels of abattoirs The house was sold New ones displaced the woods As I fled to distant lands A wandering nestless bird Ever on restless wings Aging all the time Into an insipid mass Of failing musculature Through pain and fatigue Into the grey and wrinkles Of a geriatric mess When the wick of knowing fades In slumber’s chamber every night The mess does wonder What is it that has remained Unchanged watching the river of time Displace the known with unknown things Wash a body into bones and skin Yet, the mess languishes in mess Never ever able to accept That it really is the witness The changeless awareness That remains ever untouched Lo, my tragedy is thus abetted