As It Is Poem by Ruta Mohapatra

The silence of the night
Sleep gone for a long walk
It had visited me in the afternoon
And stayed for an hour or two

Thoughts wander
Listening to the night rains
Drop, drop, drip, drip
From the plants, the roof

A train passing in the distance
Rumbling and whistling
Carrying sleepy passengers on
Or may be cargos of coal and iron

Silence, long stretches of silence
A dog starts howling and moaning
What bothers him?
May be a thief or a cat

Sun, wherever have you gone?
No other light can replace you
Not the moon, nor the stars
No light that humans create

Spaces, vast empty spaces
Between stars, between atoms, between minds
So hard to bridge the spaces
The hardest is to read the minds