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 .
