Ballad of Blue Sky and Yellow Bower

by Rumjhum Biswas

That bower of yellow flowers lady
Like grapes in snake green vines
And the sky over your garden, lady
Used to be so much bluer than mine

Songs for the butterfly, lady, I had
Sung in my youth without fear
My days had pure colors then lady
Colors that springtime had wrung clear

Hark now to the whispers of early
Years lady, and a sun still so young
Time so fine then lady, they were
Finer than your satin wedding gown

The grass was velvet lady, and fulgent
Were the waters. Verdant was the paddy,
And, mangoes were crisp and tart.
With our stone slung catapults lady

We shot like furies at the guava trees
Stirring the thickets with such wicked glee
The scolding parrots were shocked into silence
And, in silence the birds were forced to flee

How we chased those wild, wind blown days
We were like capricious will o' the wisps
Those elusive, dream days flashing now lady
Like distant blinding white sun discs

The ghost of those days beckon me lady,
Now that I brave the cold with such yearning
For your bright sky and your bower lady
My heart cannot bear the weight of this longing

Such yearning now for the yellow, for the blue
Such longing for the sweet green and gold of spring
For now in unsteady hands I hold still butterflies
to the pale talc of their colors I desperately cling.

© 2008 Rumjhum Biswas

 

 


About the Author

Rumjhum Biswas's prose and poetry have appeared in Muse India, The Bare Root Review, Etchings (Australia) The Little Magazine India (India), Eclectica, Nth Position (UK), The King's English, Halfway down the Stairs, Arabesques Review, Crannog, Clockwise Cat, Chanterelle's Notebook, Everyday Fiction, A Hudson View (South Africa), Lily Literary Review, The Paumanok Review, Poems Niederngasse (Switzerland), Unlikely Stories, Cerebration (UK), Amarillo Bay, Gowanus, Loch Raven Review and Southern Ocean Review (New Zealand). Three of her poems have been published by Unisun Publishers (India) in their 2007 anthology "The Silken Web". Two more poems are forthcoming in two separate anthologies by Forward Press of UK. At present, this erstwhile copywriter lives and writes in Chennai. She can be contacted at: rumjhumkbiswas@gmail.com

Website: rumjhumbiswas.com

 

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