Teesta Review: A Journal of Poetry, Volume 5, Number 1. May 2022. ISSN: 2581-7094
Basking in Nature’s Wonderland
– Eva Bell
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| Image: Indian Golden Oriole |
The oriole mellifluously is singing,
The meandering stream is babbling forth its tune,
The village bells at noon are softly ringing,
And all the world, so like a harvest moon.
There squatted ‘neath a shady rustic bower
Where mellow sounds pour in – the quaintest man,
Reposing on a bed of yellow flowers.
The shepherd waves aloft his palm-leaf fan
While feeding his flock in leafy green recesses.
Content to feast on Nature’s boundless store,
His eyes light up with beauty all around him,
A dreamer such as he, can’t ask for more.
The rabbit sprints across the grassy meadow
It’s cotton tail aloft, its eyes aglow.
The chipmunk squeaks and scrambles up a treetop,
Hiding from the sight of a stinging bumble bee.
The partridge hops from branch to waving branch,
Guarding her chicks from monkey’s sly advance.
The shepherd claps and laughs so merrily,
At the antics played on Nature’s greenery.
The song bird trills a lilting lullaby,
And the whispering winds play hush-a-bye,
While the shepherd soars in dreamy fantasy,
Of riding a stag through the wooded scenery.
He is shaken awake by an anguished bleating.
Up jumps the boy, his worried heart beating,
His little lamb caught in a thicket wild,
And the rest of the flock have left her behind.
The quivering lamb he lifts into his arms,
Embracing, cuddling, shielding from harm,
“Here, here my lamb, you’re safe now with me,
She snuggles in his bosom, feeling, safe, warm and
free.
‘Tis evening now, the sky is all gilded
With the painted glory of the setting sun.
The shepherd with his flock homeward trudges,
For him another lazy day is done.
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