They say the Grey Wolf
Brings hope with its return. They
Say, she brings clean
Waters, clear skies. That they mate
For life and kill to protect
Their own.
If the wolf were at my door, would I
Raise my hands to provide her prey
Ask for Spring my soul to save
Or step out and pray for the joy to dance
With the night and shiver
On a silvery howl. A giver
Of stars in the forests
Of chance.
If I said I was mad, would
You cast your face in my shadow?
If it were all I had, could you
Bring back the waters, inspire
And breathe back my madness
To me? If all about me, a sadness
Brought the War God into your arms
Would you stoke the storms with desire,
Ransom your blood to dawn?
If I were the sun that stole your light
Would you still dance with me under
Cover of night?
Sail me down
A river of moon
I could be a
Silver fish today.
Flash me through
A fire of blue, I
Could be bait for
Tunes, today.
Slow me down and sink me low
I could weep salt pearls today.
Write me a day and sing me away
Be my swing slung from a tree today,
Bound with trails and trellis of leaf
That I can hold when I want to pray..
There’s a place for us
Just as the song said there
Would be. A place for us
Where children and young ones
Will not see. A place
For the dry heave, the swift
Contortion of the face;
When the corners of the lips lift
In a sad grimace. Where
Strangers only are granted the grace
To witness sorrow and solitude
In their hurried embrace. A place
Where those who haven’t had
The time to grieve, are granted
Just there, a moment’s reprieve.
When the red gold sears
The desert sands of the skies
And the mountain rises
Like a mirage, mystic, promising
Water to the sailor, thirsting
For sandy shores. And the seas
Glitter and glow on dark beaches
Bringing treasure from the reaches
To strange lands where women
Watch from the rocks for seafarers
Washed ashore.
I thought I saw Icarus fall
White in a sky of blue
An iridescent fireball
A folly of feathers and glue
I thought I heard Icarus sing
The wind fluting in descent
A common snipe on the wing
A late spring lament.
But my eyes have long since failed me
Not entirely from years
Blinded by a son that blazed as he trailed me
Afire with my burden of fears.
Too old to see these silent flyers
Childless father of flight
Bound forever in this bird thronged tower
Forever airborne, blinded by light.
You can cross the seas to
Witness his birth
Fly the skies, straddle
The earth
But he’s born every time he
Touches the strings
Reborn with
Every note, every song
He sings. Its
One way to define
Liberty; its own kind
Of immortality.
(The picture below is of Amar Pandey, who inspired this poem, and who is one of the super-heroes in The Book of Guardians series.)
Between sky and pain
Shot down by grief
Only to rise again
Gravity’s thief.
A miracle of pull
And tug, the heart
Flies on full only
To fly apart.
When you were little – very very little –
I would turn your pajamaed feet up
Bump them with my nose until
You squeaked. In protest, amusement,
Annoyance, recusement,
Who knows.
When you were a little less little,
You would stand over my newborn
And earnestly lecture her by the hour.
Don’t listen to anyone, I heard you say once,
You just do whatever you want.
A little more less little, and stories dropped
From you like the monsoons, drenching
Us all in a deluge of images, floods of plots.
Then you became not little at all.
And we waited for the words to fall.
But they clung to the paper on which you left them
Swaddled in sheets, jealous to be found.
And here you are, with such a big voice
And me, speechless, at this thundering sound.
(Inspired by Ananya Pandey, a real life poet, who is also a super hero in The Book of Guardians Series)
Giti Chandra 