A river never forgets
her path.
And yes she hadn’t
She flowed with all
her grace, spreading wide,
Playfully with a
smile
Now she flowed clear
and strong, for many miles
In all her glory
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,
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
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
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’