Ashok Niyogi
They open up like petals
Of a huge huge flower,
Sexual,
The mountains do;
Range after range
Only the colors change,
Green to blue to gray
Heights change, from near to far
Decimated forests are brown
I ask why?
Petals reaching for the sky,
Serene, content
Immovable; no scent.
Layer after layer
Enmeshed in mist
Petals don’t talk back with intent.
Down below the Beas insists
Over rock it demands it flow,
Beds of pebbles
Laugh all the while.
I go the other way,
Against the flow
Into the snow.
The pines they see
How will this eucalyptus man be?
Son of fire,
Rise up and catch the moon.
Forever, forever the mountains try,
I wonder why.
I see no glory
In that pock-marked
Half-eaten story.
In my sketch,
With stars
The mountains will fight wars,
And the Trout in the Beas
With their fish eyes
Will look at the mountains
And wonder why.
