Two Poems by Mitali Chakravarty

By Mitali Chakravarty 

Grazing grounds

Blood threatens the grazing grounds
pushing the grazers till they
cry hunger. Borders drawn.
Borders violated.

Where will the herders go?
Where will the yaks graze
as red glows on hilltops
glazed with guns?

Who plans the battle?
Who gives the guns?
The yaks fearing battle
lift loads.

The cruelty of it all.
Fodder for guns, soldiers.
Fodder for yaks, grass
that covers the hilltop

where flags of intrusion deny fodder
to yaks and Life to soldiers.
Land was made as one by God.
Whose hands drew the borders?

Inspired by a news report on the condition of nomadic herders because of China-India border dispute.

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Battleground

The morning dew inspires the sun
to paint with moistened tips
a new day: to awaken the green
asleep in the darkness of the night

drenched silver black by moon rays.
The orange slits the greyness into two
as water ripples awaken the flowing blood –
an extension of the colours of dawn.

Soldiers lay down their weapons and
return to their folds, leaving the battleground,
weary after days of impasse. The horizon
merges with the setting and rising of rays.

The skyline fades. The sun yo-yos in play
but, manmade borders, they stay.
Forever slay. Weeping Guernicas
line Kurukshetras and Ayodhyas.

Bio:
Mitali Chakravarty is writer and the editor of Borderless Journal. She has been published widely in journals and anthologies. She writes and translates for harmony, humanity and kindness and looks forward to a world beyond all borders.

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