Poem - 8 (5.2)

 Teesta Review: A Journal of Poetry, Volume 5, Number 2. November 2022. ISSN: 2581-7094

Roots

--- Sagar Mal Gupta

My job is in Australia

but my house

is still in India.

I have made

some friends here too

but my parents

are still in India.

 

 

Desert

                                 --- Sagar Mal Gupta

The Simpson Desert is the darling child of Australia

The Thar Desert is the darling child of India

with her unwavering obedience.

When she wants her to be

hot in summer and cold in winter,

she immediately obeys her without questioning.

Her tolerance in the world is unparalleled.

She receives the bullets of rain

whips of storm and hurricane

smilingly with perfect glee in her eyes.

She has never seen her sister snow;

She falls unceasingly on mountains.

She has no knowledge of her brothers

Such as chinars and pine trees.

But she certainly knows that one day,

after millions of years

she will cease to exist

and she will become a beautiful mountain.

And then she will have all that

she does not have now

and very gratefully join the company

of her sister and brothers.

 

 

 The Renowned Professor of Australian Literature

                                                                                                             --- Sagar Mal Gupta

A mango sapling was planted

It received foreign manure

Plenty of water and fertile soil

It blossoms day and night

Covered with luxuriant flowers

         

Rich sweet fruits

Hundreds of beetles come

Butterflies haunt it

Bees suck its juice

Fame of its fruits

Spread far and wide.

Birds come crowdingly

sing songs in its praise

This makes it more fruitful

Fragrant and uberous

Brings honors and laurels.

The trees in smaller places

toil hard to suck water

from the local soil

grow haltingly

bear no flowers and fruits

no birds and no insects

ever visit them.

They will perish

unsung and sterile.

But having no regrets

feeling satiated with

small achievements.




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Interliminal Encounters: Indian and Australian writers in po(i)etic dialogue, eds Amelia Walker and Aden Burg