28 Jun 2011

The Bell

Posted by Oblivion in Poetry | 8:07pm


at break of dawn
it rang loud
the temple bell
every day it did
when, as a boy,
i slept under
the shade of neem

it rang loud, too,
when, firm in feet,
in the fields i ran
and hit the bark
drunk with the pride
that of youth
to music i danced

when time, as a hawk,
flew, hovered, and flew
in days and years
the bell, still atop
the hamlet's temple
talked to my ears
deaf to its sound

the neem is dead
frail are my feet 
walls have crumbled
in ruins, the temple 
long for that sound i do
but even a faint note
the bell rings no more

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