Amita Ajit Bihar writes

BIHAR , LOVE

Ever heard of the phrase

“Keeping your head above the water ?”

This is what it means

It means being sunk neck deep in water

With a stick to keep you steady

And measure the depth to which you are sunk

In powerful waves that rise by the minute 

Someone in another state or another country

Or another world

Could decide to open some floodgates any minute

And the water need rise

Only 4 inches

To enter your nose

Your mouth

And in seconds your lungs

And you’re a dead man

In seconds

Too tired to swim in the sunlight

Having swum all night

Your head is tilted back already

To keep the water out of nose and mouth

Not to call out to heavenly powers

Or pray to the sun

Or ask for non existent human help

Your eyes are closed

Drenched not in tears but waves

In complete concentration

To fight Death

You hope for and yet dread your stark survival

So you try to keep some grains dry

And add an old paint tin of clean water

To keep you going in case you survive

Or somehow reach dry land where none may help you

Tie some bamboo stems

Spread some bamboo leaves

A plastic sheet

Keep the wheat you grew

And winnowed

Dry

To feed you

And perhaps a loved one

Out of a whole family you know nothing of

Since the waters parted you just after midnight

Dead? alive? Or Neither?

Half dead ? 

There is Death in those waters

Death hovering like a vulture overhead

Your hold on life could snap at any moment

The minute you are just too tired

Your arms pulled out of their sockets

Stretching, strained to breaking point

Your feet getting heavier by the second

Your leg muscles

Unwilling and unable

To hold you up

Life

And the Will to live

Exist mid wave and sky

In you this moment

None can tell

The next

I love you

Do not let life go

I love you, Bihar !

Hold on

For my sake

For God’s sake

Never let go

I know you won’t

Let Death come if it will

But you will fight it

With every atom in your every cell

For that I love you

You teach me love each moment that you live

You teach me life

You give me breath

 

Love . Bihar .