In the Good Old Days
K. Radhakumar *
The day is breaking
Without birds singing in chorus.
It is a tragic story,
The story of the metamorphosis
Of the country into a town.
The town crows since daybreak
Till late in the night
And I suffer from sleeplessness.
In the east of my life
I was woken by the sound of
Drongoes playing games with crows.
The drongo flew in a semicircle
Over a lazy crow
Sitting at the end of the stem of a bamboo
Its head bent like an old woman.
Whenever the drongo swooped down
Over the crow
To pick bits of hair from its head,
It crowed sending out a dull note.
I had a feeling
The crow gulped back its unhappiness
And was all set to start of the day
At a steady trot.
The crow sat there,
Sipping at her tea of life.
In the evening
My wife and I
Talk about our childhood days
Over a cup of tea.
A pang of nostalgia fill our hearts.
She harks back to
How things used to be
And say our children will not see
The dance of crows and drongoes
In the skies above Imphal.
'An age has come to an end',
She murmurs
And there is a note of finality
In my wife’s lovely voice.
* Poem written by K. Radhakumar which was published at The Sangai Express
This poem was webcasted on July 27, 2017.
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