(110) Song For A Dead River Poem by premji premji

1

Rivers,
do they have
exequies,
graveyards and
requiems?

11

Silent flows
a river before me,
we call her Chaliyar*.

She exhumes
dead fishes,
gives us
venomous dreams,
corrodes away
our time: so precious,
accelerates our
cell growths,
curtails our
life span,
sterilizes our soil
and preaches us -
'Life is a
never ending itch! '
Still we love her.

And her tormentor*,
he stands
on steel and concrete,
exhales clouds of
black smoke,
liquefies our lungs,
taints our sky-
so blue earlier-
tarnishes our river
under the cover of night,
spurts his excrement into
our maiden’s womb...
and at last
entombs us like dogs!


Between
the dents of pollution'
he squeezes
her soul out,
throws a face-cloth on her,
hails the power of money
and their eyes
dazzle out of profits!

111

She flows
blinded and
deafened like
the Goddess of death!
So dark, her cascade flows
and our tears make her
still more dark!
Bereft of all feelings
quiet flows
and the dark moon
floats on...

Being exasperated,
our benefactress
becomes tormentress!
She likes to separate
our lives entwined…
Still she is enshrined
in the lower depths of
our hearts!

So
let's not wait for
new incarnations
to save her...
Be martyrs in the struggle
for existence,
for our right to live!

Let's not rest,
let's walk
on all paths untrodden,
let's not retrace our steps,
let's fight
until her arteries
carry blood... pure blood,
until we extricate her...

25.11.99

*Grasim industries, Mavoor.