Tempest of time (poems)

Tempest of time (poems)

-Kondapalli Niharini

Translated by Elanaaga

17. Time to Grow

The sky is torturing.
Let alone guarding the infinite universe,
it’s crushing under its foot, the endangered faith.
It is useful neither for dried coir nor for fire.
How tiny your heart is amidst your henchmen,
how senseless your conceit, is not known!
It is of use only for eating in the
morning and sleeping in the night!

Your sense is shut
All the authority that made you haughty,
dragged you into slush!
Is this the birds’ bond of sprints
born out of defeat in contests?
All the love stored in packets has turned
into flowers of legs and got crushed.
The same hands, which gave sweets
have spurted venom!
The life hacked and put in sacs
is emitting a stench of wickedness.

Your remainder life
is but a cracked pot, a dry lake.
Listen to the signals of cruelty
amid the four walls of your home.
Whatever the causes for your miseries,
can maternal love be so harsh, unkind?
If disgrace is a crown of thorns for you,
your lack of feeling has to be destroyed,
your innocent journey of grief as well.
Unable to give an answer to the universe,
even the sky is crying.
The smoke of tears became a dark fluid,
retinas solidified into childhood.
Make mother a sojourn of the train;
transmit the lament of the earth into you.
Show to the world the need to introspect
What is needed today is to clean the mirror;
knowing it’s time to grow.

*****

(To be continued-)