( A Mid – Monsoon Night Thunderstorm in Patna )
Now
This minute
This half – hour
A noisy thunderstorm is raging around me
It’s sounds ominous
It seems to want to tear apart
Not just man- made edifices
Our schools and colleges
hospitals and shopping malls
Bungalows apartments and huts
Our embankments and bridges
But even the trees and plants
That Nature has nurtured
Every bird- nest sways precariously
Some fall
Trees are uprooted
Roof tiles fly like leaves in autumn winds
Window panes shatter
Electric poles fall
Transformers burn and die out
With a terrible noisy shuddering of their oil- filled coils
We are truly in the dark
We fear earthquakes
For in such fury of Nature do they come
As crowning disasters
To Patna and Bihar
Cursed by the Buddha
To be ever in the spate
Of Flood or Fire
Earthquake or Riot
Man and beast
Bird and insect
All cower
Trying to take shelter
Till somehow the fury passes
Where is Coronavirus ?
Yes , where is it ?
Who will save us from this more immediate Death
That chills the air
And spares no bird or beast
And treats man’s concrete structures with contempt –
Richly deserved ?
Shall we all die tonight ?
Is this my last poem ?
Ask me , do ,
If this is an autobiographical poem
Not I
But the Storm shall answer
( Amita Sarjit Singh )
Who will save us from this more immediate Death
That chills the air
And spares no bird or beast
And treats man’s concrete structures with contempt –
Richly deserved ?…
A vivid portrait of the chaos and fear caused by the fury of the thunderstorm…
Thank you , Pushmaotee Subrun , for reading and responding so kindly to the poem
An excellent capture of the immediacy of the frightening experience.
Such events in life reinforce our Faith in the Almighty …
Yes , indeed , Vijay Nair , it felt even in writing like a pen picture or a video grab of the event .
Such events in life reinforce our Faith in the Almighty
Indeed , Swati Gadgil
They bring us closer to the source and destination of our ephemeral lives