Poetry

20.09.2009 à 19:50

The Last Leaf by Veerankutty

What is there

For the last leaf on the tree
To gloat over?

Well –
Imagine
A little ant
Wandering alone
Under the tree.
Imagine
It can shade the ant
From the blazing sun
As it swings wildly in the wind.
Never mind
If the wind
Tears it off the tree.

If only it could fall on the little ant
Gently
Like a huge green umbrella
And wait
With a mischievous smile
For the mother ant to arrive
And be cross with it
For hiding her child from her –

What more would a leaf want?

Gone

She said,
"The moon has fallen into a sea of dirt, and all that I loved is gone."
They said,
"There is still the sea. The clouds. The earth."
She said,
"The ground slides, filthy and bedraggled, into the melting earth, and all that I loved is gone."
They said,
"There is still the sea. The clouds."
She said,
"The sea is but a stench - it devours but it does not live. All that I loved... is gone."
They said,
"But the clouds. We still have the clouds."
She said,
"The clouds are veils of sulphur and acid rain."
They said,
"We love the rain."
She said,
"All that I loved is gone."