Hooray February! Poem by AtreyaSarma Uppaluri

I love February
because it’s a brewery
of chilly winter
and sunny warmth.

I love February
because it isn’t a cocky first;
but only a modest next
like how I always prefer
taking a second row chair.
Likewise my car, hello,
is not a Uno, but an Alto!

I love February
because it’s the baby
of the promising January.
And with that promise
February bears March
with all its vernal vibrancy.

I love water, aqua:
It’s the spring of life.
I love February
because I am an Aquarian.

I love February
because the holy water eponymous
purifies me and makes me vigorous
a la
Februa
the great Roman festival.

I love February
because it’s doughty,
has the will to survive:
From a long monthless limbo
to the twelfth place
then to the second
in the calendar -
it was a saga of freedom fight
in the hoary history of time.

I love February
because it’s a month of lovely violets
of diverse hues and scents galore
and
of amethysts that keep you sober.

I love February
because it’s the one month
that determines the leap
or otherwise of a year
shortie it is though.

They malign February as ‘hollow’ and ominous.
Don’t fib, I reply, it is ‘full’ and luminous:
I work for twenty eight
and get paid for thirty one.
Then isn’t it ‘full’?

No triskaidekaphobe,
I love the thirteenth
for it symbolises
the eternal crusade
against superstition
and discrimination.

God loves it too
for He has made the date
a rendezvous
of countless events
no less happy than any other.

I love Feb thirteenth
because I came into this world
on that unique date.
For me it’s always the first.

In their nineties and seventies
still going strong
on me shower my parents
a golden pot of blessings full.

Long live Februarians!
Long live humanitarians!

[Feb 11,2009: : Hyderabad - 500 056]