Tempest of time (poems)

Tempest of time (poems)

-Kondapalli Niharini

Translated by Elanaaga

26. Vine with No Leaves

Knowledge is turning into a forest
amid hard times, animosities
that are moving as waves.
This city with burning trees
is akin to a coffin; it’s like a cistern
filled with silent dark melancholic songs.
A traitor it is:
when asked for leeway, the merciless night
is moving stealthily in invisible forms.
Giving birth to miserable mysterious lives,
flipping the pages of life and death.
Rancour, not born to the strange extreme sky,
journey of days and nights born to the earth,
the grief of falling leaves…
The nation is immersed in a competition
of hurling stones; thoughts are a reality in
the census of bodies… showing themselves
in many different ways.
What happened now?!
Like the din of a hanging lute of blood
in the shadow of terror,
like a financial wail sans truth,
like a heart’s pain with no script
some helplessness is carrying truths
that cannot sign on the time screen.
The cruelty of these uncertain winds
is posing difficult questions
to the lives of inequalities.
The glowworms in dark caverns
are stones that conceived fire seeds.
They are looking similar to
the glances of a lamp.
These are the days when wars
are fought with no swords!
Sparks need to sprout in every friction.
Vines sans leaves are entwining
around the globe’s movement.
Walk past the inner incidents;
invite new sprouts as long as
pots are available.

Published in NetiNijam dated 11th may 2021

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(To be continued-)