How Are You All? Poem by Prem Narayan Nath

How are you all? enfolds
the night and wraps the bird's call in sorrow

Flowers on my palm bend over
and the disembodied crane
starts peeking at heart

the rent sky dips in the sleepless eyes
the hushed night reflects
you, your face, your colour, your words

the earth is but an imperriled planet
and no star pours rosy warmth
on bonds of kindness / weal

a hive of storms brews at the tips of trees
shedding leaves and flowers
bares but stark poverty

How are you all, really?
Time leans towards the battlefield
man, machines and all-
like the lone tree at an impending storm
my riverine hut flutters

How are you?
the lone question saddens
the earth and sky
rivers, seas and woods
or countless human faces

in waterlogged darkness, stilled time, disembodied,
the river of green eyes surges over
But are you alright?



Translated by Pradip Acharjya