A River Of Tears

He was for long on the river sailing since sunrise When under afternoon clouds the hamlet caught his eyes Wearied by the sojourn to that land a faraway call The green beckoned to rest his oars for a leisurely stroll. He sat under a banyan to heal his limbs of pain Darker grew the clouds the winds hinted rain His heart too was aching the heart of a lonely man For he had left behind his sweetheart his beloved woman. It’s not known if clouds swelled in his dreamy eyes His mind was too obsessed for the Empire’s rise There he stood on the riverbank an alien on another’s soil That he must till to build a kingdom paying with sweat of toil. He remembered his three children their skin’s blended tan Their rustic eyes reflecting their mother the one his woman He reminisced under banyan shade how he fell in love with her Only if he were a little late she would’ve been burned at the pyre. The man loved that sleepy hamlet built there a factory The trade post became a city earned place in history The river still meanders laden with the tears of pity That swelled in his eyes for the woman he saved from suttee.