Her path and her wrath

A river never forgets her path.

And yes she hadn’t

She flowed with all her grace, spreading wide,

Bursting sparkling bubbles and rolling little pebbles,

Playfully with a smile

Now she flowed clear and strong, for many miles
In all her glory

And on her banks stood the bewildered lot

Young men and women,

Wandering midst the dug up ruins

Wondering why they had gone – their very own kinds,

Men – the homo sapien

All gone without a trace

Leaving just rubble and ruins

Stones, bricks, cement, concrete and sand

Tonnes of them and tonnes of them

These were cities said one

Planned and unplanned.

And yet why did they all go ? Where did they go ?

What was their tale and who will ever tell ?

As she moved , she cast a glance on them

Wanting to tell

How they had raped her to her bone

Day and night and night and day

Their men – their very one species

Mercilessly undressing her of all her sand

Marauding armies coming in trucks - twenty tonnes each and plenty of them

Digging her, draining her

Building buildings and building cities,

More and more and more and more

She had given them life

She had given them love – food, water and shelter

For need – not for greed – not for this much greed.

Drunk with cash, she mattered no more.

The lonely few who spoke,

Were hushed down with some cash or for ever, with a crash

The senseless ones wouldn’t ever stop

Even when they had to, they hadn’t yet stopped

Nothing was left, No water nor sand

They scrapped her still and soon for sure, there was no food nor life

Her banks were doomed and had begun to die.

And when they thought she was all but dead,

She came back one day

For she hadn’t forgotten her path,

She came wild, furious, wide

Rumbling and roaring

Crashing and crushing

Nothing could stop her, Nothing could slow her,

Tumbling down buildings, turning over trucks

Drawing in her rapists , drowning them in the muck  

Sucking up all their stash,

All her sand and all their cash

No greed mattered now , nor did any need

For when she flowed now

She flowed to wipe out.

She flowed and flowed for years at length
In all her fury 

Cleaning them all off, leaving little trace.

An aeon had gone and her fury had gone

She wasn’t Ponni now 
She was'nt Cauvery now,

Bewitched by her beauty, they had given her a new name

Bursting sparkling bubbles and rolling little pebbles

Doing what she loved – giving them life

Water food and love.

And then one day, there stood on her banks this bewildered lot

Young men and women, who had forgotten their past

And when they poked and they turned

Sifting through the dug up rubble

On a small rock it was hasty scribble

In an old odd script they finally managed to read

And it said   

‘Never ever invoke a river’s wrath’