Nowadays
Photo: Karan Madhok
A poem by Sonali Chanda: ‘I ain’t a holy devil; but / a typical weird Eagle / who is about / to take her giant flight’
In those days,
I plucked blue berries,
played with blue butterflies,
wore a blue apron
to match with their wings.
Those days
were my finest days
that I spent with
cloudless azure,
flying and sleeping
in the lap of it.
Nowadays
I’m married
to the woods,
like a giant golden Eagle,
whose flight is faraway
over the glorious
snow-capped mountains;
over the aquamarine seas,
amidst the darkest woods
to embrace it.
Now,
when you go away,
I’d like
to wrap the clouds
around my constantly
moving body: a perfect armour
to fight back
against hell.
This is not the end;
rather it’s a new dawn.
The whole day is
still to roll on; this day
shines terribly
to glare your eyes.
I ain’t a holy devil; but
a typical weird Eagle
who is about
to take her giant flight—
embraced with
her beloved
dark woods.
***
Sonali Chanda is an acclaimed Indian writer and poet. She is the author of the novella Love’s Faint Echoes and the poetry collection The Echoes of the Swooshing Winds. Recently, her travelogue Ladakh en Route Tibetan Taboos was honoured by the Nissim International Award. You can find her on Instagram: @blues_and__hues.
