The lake is deep
And the reflection is boundless
Category: Poem
Here comes the night
I mourn the fireflies
There used to be so many
My grandparents say
They would looks at the trees at night
Seeing more firefly lights than stars in the sky
“There” they point, at the ancient mango tree
“It pulsed with light, like a forest breathing”
I found one in my room
I took him outside
He lit up and flew, disoriented
Not another firefly in sight
Milestone
Like a news story breaking against a slow moving day
I sit by my cats on the balcony, sans headphone
calmly watching the way
so many move alone
Blood moon
I heard a bird of the sea, so far inland
A bird of the mountains has followed me
To this desolate mainland, where we live
As though lost to islands deep in the Ocean
On the day of the lunar eclipse a morning bird
Called to me in the evening, but was nowhere
Lost to the sight as it sang it’s song of delight
Red fly
A red dragonfly
on the port facing Buddha
resting on his heart
prancing about
when problems arise
it grows warm-hearted
Night Crow
Full moonlight
In lockdown
The temple doors shut
But oil lamps dancing
A Jackdaw sings
Too deep into the night
Crow, call again!
Hellfire on the streets
Far beyond what we can see
Over the smoke and moonlight
Past the Temple door
Crow, call again!
King of the Sky
summer wind, summer wind
a silent eagle great over the clouds
winter quilt thick and deep over the future
Ember fire
Like weak moonlight
night after night
dancing smoke of embers
and now the scent punishes me!
the leaves rustling
in the night-wind
tombstones for your voice
Siren Song
Under the shallow stream
On that vacant riverbed
I remember red seeds in the clay
Who spilled these rubies
Like the light on a starry night
Among the snails on the pebbles
Where snakes take to water
But fish do not swim
Upon that empty bank
My heart is trapped
Oh Village of my ancestors
Whose fables are still sung
When I am with my people
I am alone in elephant grass
Dusty breezes folding them
My family a rainstorm
But in the shaky soil
My heart is strung
In the shallow mirror of water
My reflection looks back
Though I live far away
In the rituals of this land
Ancestors are called
Around a bonfire in the night
I, a tree alone, in grassland
Over the mountains tall
Have heard a siren call
Big Cat
The tiger
With all his might
Looks inside
Rijul Ballal 