Desert Poem by Prabhakar Subramaniam

No kuyil softens

The sun's fierceness

What was heard

Is heard no more

Like leftovers of time

The trees stand bare

Stripped of leaves

And flowers and nests and shade

Seem ready to die

Give way to cacti

The birds have flong fled

The land from where all water has vanished

Like the cattle and their keepers

Who worshipped the cowherd

As dark as the rain cloud

And who founded a city in the sea

The thatched houses are all shut

No kolams are seen outside them

No one looks like coming back

The wind whips up more sand

As it wanders around

Looking for its lost playmates

With feet as fleet as lightning

And laughter as sweet as the patter of rain