Contemporary Literary Review India | eISSN 2394-6075 | Vol 6, No 3: CLRI August 2019
Prof. (Dr) Sagar Mal Gupta
Wall of Tears1
When a girl leaves her parents’ house
She steps out of the house
with an apprehensive expectancy.
She hugs her father crying a lot
she embraces her mother
weeping a little less than for the father
she hugs her brother(s)
and sister (s) still a little less
than her mother.
Her departure from the house
is emotionally loaded.
She says good bye to the ‘Tulsi Plant’
that she planted and watered daily.
She does not forget to say ‘Good Bye’
to the pet dog and pet parrot
that she played with every day.
Every plant, every leaf, every bird
every flower is weeping bitterly
at her departure. They know
they will miss her as well as
she will miss them.
Everybody was wonderstruck
when the weather all of a sudden changed
bringing torrential rain..
They heard water falling from the roof drains
then there was another drain
that spewed water incessantly
like Honokohau Falls
forming a wall of tears.1
1Honokohau Falls are the highest
falls in Hawaii. Several falls fall
from 1119 foot high mountain in a
couple of stages. Hence they are called
A Wall of Tears.
Wrinkles
Colour is discriminated against
but wrinkles are most democratic .
They choose the rich and the poor
the weak and the strong
man and woman alike.
Wrinkles arrive riding
the horse of time
Which gallops over
all climes and countries
like a winged arrow.
Wrinkles make deep furrows
on all parts of the body
as a farmer ploughs a virgin field.
You can pick wrinkles
with the grasp of two fingers.
Wrinkles on throat are bigger
than other parts of the body.
As the rich have more
property than the middle class.
The poor man’s hands and legs
are the last to have
property of wrinkles.
But there are only a few
unfortunate ones
who have not been blessed with wrinkles
Wrinkled Morning
When I woke up in the wrinkled morning
I had the shock of my life
when I noticed
that the cherry free in front of my house
was razed by the storm
that blew the whole night
without informing me.