Creativity Pen | An international journal of English literature | January 2024
Prof. Dr. V. Alexander Raju
Waiting for Migratory Birds
We lived this glorious life on earth
As per what our Odd Fate pre-planned
And we really happy as we lived long
A life quite worthy of what we deserved.
No regrets at all, our children,
Except against my destiny,
For we’re happy with our life
And everything that framed it well.
Perhaps, you thought of this world a nation,
And all humans asthe world citizens;
You felt strangers in your own birth place,
And you hated all those man-made barriers.
You prayed for their return without knowing
The migratory birds would never return,
You thought, and waited patiently for them,
But they forgot their route and tradition.
The Wicked Force
There’s a wicked force, we thought,
In nature’s secret foundry
That makes birds migratory
To find their future resort.
The parents struggled a lot
To build the best of all nests,
Saw great dreams about their eggs,
Against nature even they fought.
They taught their birdlings fly,
Up above their normal dreams,
To touch the source of sun-beams,
Higher than what they could fly.
Then the young ones took their turn,
Leaving parents in old nest,
Flew away for far off lands,
For new nests of no return.
At first, they came every year,
Then once in two or three years,
Then once in a decade, to end,
As if they forgot their route.
The poor parents now regret
Their foolishness in giving
Higher thoughts and higher dreams
That left the aged ones forlorn.
It’s our mistake, we taught them to migrate,
To seek new pastures and fresh water sheds,
They obeyed us and left our nest forever,
And to home never again did they return.
The Ghostland
Reports say: A million houses
Are empty in Kerala, for sale;
For the inmates had left abroad
And settled in some foreign lands.
Youngsters left seeking better jobs,
And their parents as caretakers
Of grandchildren, and their houses
Remained haunted homes in ghost-land.
The scum of an old generation,
Lived in some houses, like skeletons,
At times, a lazy dog howled aloud,
Until they’re transferred to old-age-homes.
Banks kept myriads of inactive accounts,
With huge unclaimed amounts in deposits,
For holders died, leaving no true record
That the cunning rich took huge sum as loans.
The business magnets ignored to pay back,
The banks wrote off the loan amounts,
Why should the loanees and banks care,
If blood relatives ignore their parents?
Undeserved Rulers
Can those who gather round to stone,
When the innocent poor mortals
Commit crimes in their ignorance,
Have any true prick of conscience?
While meditating escapists
Laugh at human misery,
No hermit turns to console
This hunter roaming in the jungle.
Our ancient laws never allowed
Hermits, eunuchs, dwarfs or the disabled
To rule the country, except as advisers
To the King, Emperor pr Prime Minister.
Now the disqualified ruled directly
And the country and subjects face misery;
No truth, no knowledge but mortality,
We face starvation, disease and no peace.
