Stay safe sapling|Poem by Bidhisha,16, Tamluk
Every sapling is important to keep our planet alive, writes 16 year old Bidisha from Tamluk, in this powerful poem opposing deforesting in the name of progress.
The darkness in the sky began to fade away
In the first glow from the skyline….
He wasn’t there to awake at the end of night.
The red globe lifted its head
From its under horizon bed
And flooded the world in shine from heaven….
He wasn’t there to bathe in first light.
Across the field swam the breeze
To its rhythm danced the grasses
The birds sang to the beauties….
He wasn’t there amidst all those delight.
The sky was dressed in sapphire blue,
At her crown a topaz was glowing like fire,
We were sweating while walking along the street….
He wasn’t there to shade us from heat.
Perhaps the sky realised all?
In the afternoon she changed to
Her mourning dress of dark black….
She spread white flowers in memory of him
And wept, wept profusely over his death,
Her cry reverberated through the atmosphere….
The wind joined the mourning,
She prayed for him to rest in peace,
The bushes and grasses bent their heads…
I threw myself on the ground,
And hugged tightly what had survived
Of him from the axes of butchers…
His blood dried at the edges of the stump,
The blood he spilled to fulfill the greed
Of some devils who would never be satisfied…
Would the green angel be noble enough to forgive
Them who dared to hurt him after he had
Bestowed them with every essential of life?
The moon soothed us with her serene smile
And I too smiled through tears, when I saw
Our prayers had not gone unanswered…
Kissed by the gentle breeze of evening
A little sapling was waving at us
From the edge of the grave of the dead angel!
I prayed with the whole nature for it,
For it to defy all attacks of human-devils
And thrive and flourish as an emblem of life.
