The Tenth Day Poem by DEEPAK KUMAR PATTANAYAK

Of no insignificance
It held when in a summer's noon
We had April
And we had autumn as well
And we gathered at a place
Where stretched a pond over acres
Of land and we sat beside it to comply with rituals
So keen the razor and so soft the touch of barbers' hands
While shaving off hairs from our crown and face thus assigning the looks of a moon
Bathed in the pale radiance of the sun
Barely had we felt bodily pain
But the cleavage of our brain
Then slowly we made our way into water
Had had a plunge or two, three or four
Then came out
With our bodies cleansed for the soul past
Then wrapped up in the robe of fine Indian texture (dhoti) ,
White-coloured with a blue- black edge
In a distance I could see souls
Dipping very gently in water loving to splash about in their emotions
Grasses around were plenty
So cool and cute looked like heavenly
Descendants sitting alone
Meditating in outfit green
And sometimes they were waving gently
Even in the sultry
Breeze of noon and the sun seemed sleeping
A long sleep in mother's lap listening
To the lullaby
Of the song wind solemnly passing by
And of no irrelevance
It held when we had the reminiscence
Of dear ones
Loved so much once
Whose faces shone
Bright through sailing the tide of bond in the fair sunshine
Against the body of water of the pond
Now seemed
Turning unto an ocean beside my eye
And I could see
The frigate of day and night cruising along
That perennial route leading
To a country pure, aloof and mystifying
Where our loved ones were waiting
Though unheard of either stacked in snow or stuck in a storm
For it flows unceasingly through in harmony and rhythm
We were cheered not at her poise and form
So fast, a conjurer mesmerizing with her scheme