Your shadow discovered my shadow
on the wall of the boundary,
and then on the black-sooted iron gate
that was meant to be padlocked,
we found out a way to jump that gate.
To learn to come back from death
is not something understood; it happens on its own –
survival. The beetle clutches on to a
straw in water. And then one day the pigeon
learns to let go of all fears and fly
We held on to the raindrops after the mighty
drought had made us skin and bones.
Some things are ordained by the vicissitudes
of time. Plants adapt to lean on each other.
Science cannot answer all of life’s happenings.
The moon will go through different phases –
waxing and waning; yet its changing phases
are the constant we hold on to for all our life
What would shadows know about each other?
They wait forever to discover their souls
The mighty drought could not decimate our roots
hidden under the soil from years of suffering
We were plants; we learnt to survive!
Poem by Avijeet Das