A WOMAN, A WEATHER

She sprouted the dormant seeds in me

I bloomed like jacaranda

My champak fragrance of yesteryears filled the air

And the milky sap dropped in fulfilment

Your windy evenings shook my branches

And I dropped the fruits hidden among my leaves and tender flowers

You shook my roots and we became one in my bark and branches

You were the wind in me

We were entwined, your wind and my branches, like smoke through hair

I fell on you in orgasmic submission like a tree felled.

She was affectionate downpour

She sprouted all that was dormant in me

Washed my dirty lanes afresh

She was the infinite sky

She was furious monsoon

She burnt me completely

Left me ashes

She thundered in my ears and echoed in my inner ears

She drowned my dreams and snatched my banks

She ripped apart my roof and tore apart my fluttering colourful flags

She denuded me, made my branches bare and the wind blew through me

like snake on me

She stifled me in her chill

Blurred my vision and choked my throat

She stole my sunshine and made me dull.

I became an ugly mess in your monsoonic downpours

I lost the initial fragrance kindled by you

I spread the stink of my undissolved residues

Many a feet splashed and rippled my calm

You washed me afresh

You burnt my tall tops in your thunderous spanks

You pelted me with your words and melted my hollow heaps

You fertiled my lap

Your summers scorched my bare body

You seeped through the pores of my hair

You threw mirage of myriad dreams

And parched my throat

The chill of your spurns numbed me

And I groped for warmth with stretched palms

Everything stood still brooding

I was the sun lost in the dense fog of your being

You all did something or the other to me

I wish I could capture in words my unseen bruises and unsung blooms.

                                               --- by Santhosh Kumar Kana

                                               (written on 16 Feb 2013, Kathmandu)