The Day After - December 5, 2023

This poem is a brutal reminder of the spoils across the city and lives disrupted. Sunshine and blue skies are back, and life is urging everybody to go on and move forward.

First – the chirpy bird song

And of course –

The raspy ravens

How I love to

Listen to them again

Broken bridges

Ripped telephone lines

Fallen electric poles

The warriors still battle

No electricity or Internet yet

A walk about the campus

Trees with broken limbs

Brutally plucked away

Fatigued trees now standing still

Wet leaves folded in humility

A beautiful tree it was once

Now slanting ominously

What about the walkers

By the time I return

It turns into neatly chopped wood

Little nestlings wet

Does not matter now

For they are sleeping well

Forever, now, forever

Their parents not around

The pause in the downpour

brings the morning calm (again)

A clear blue sky

Floating fluffy foams

doze of bright sunshine

The soft touch of the breeze

The shiny green leaves

still, and don't quiver

An orange hibiscus

Blooms, fresh and innocent

A new-born knows no past

Just today with bright sunshine

A new day to look forward

The still puddle now clear

A mirror of the blue heavens above

Innocent pools now

Just right for little children

Again- the chirpy bird song

And of course –

The raspy ravens

How I love to

Listen to them again

But…

Electricity back in the city

Gadgets guzzling to life

Chime with reminders of work

Texts, pictures, and videos

Urging to get on with life

I am just one of them

Folks, heaven is here and back

For the dead will be buried

Broken will be fixed or forgotten

The day after…

Life springs a day forward.

~Ashok Subramanian © 2023