My Kalahandi Poem by Prasanna Mishra

Rolling of tears
Occasionally
Looks natural
Like expected rains
Over,
The sky looks bright
Like a child's gleeful face.
Unabated tears
Corrode flesh
It flows
Baring bones
Outcrop of rocks
On those hillocks
Sans foliage.

Why then do you roam
Amidst rocks
Barren
He gave you
His wealth
His grains
And cows
You were in dire need
He thought
Gave on and on
To roam
Away, from home.

Let him
Now return
A humble man
And live,
Let waves of tears
No more
Swell the Indravati
Enough
My friend
Let him see
Butterflies
In his hillocks
And meadows,
Again.
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(Indravati, a tributary of the river Godavari, flows in Kalahandi. Kalahandi is a district of Odisha that attracted wide attention due to widespread poverty.)

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