– Jabun Naher
23.3.23
I
A tiny little wooden bridge
Merely three feet wide
But too long to inspire
Awe of a hawk`s dive,
Striped with iron rope
Both alongside to support
Walking visitors waving hands,
Crisscrossed to a deep
Bushy streaming flow,
Always reflecting green
Of the underneath mosses,
Surrounded by a silhouette
That will roughly depict
Remnants of Garo hills,
Covered with cactus, wild berries,
And the Gardener`s long trees.
For I have sworn to visit
Its beauty and fame only
With my spring`s shower,
Though postponed earlier
In a hot summer day
For some unavoidable reasons.
II
Twice I was near to probe,
Under some official obligations,
In to its virgin periphery!
But how thankful I am!
Oh! My dearest Provident!
You have saved me twice,
To keep my eyes virgin,
And a shower pure in my spring!
But, probably I was tensed
To avoid sudden chances,
For, I had sworn to my spring
Never to roam but with him!
Yet, deep within me probably
It whispered very gently-
How could you so long
Avoid Gajni`s lurking beauty ?
And you, my subconscious me,
Curtailed the long awaiting gap
When he pronounced the date,
And a plan earlier chased,
My mind saw a probability,
Oh! We are going to meet!
A knot forever united
Our blooming flowers on to its stem!
A cherished reunion,
A light to a virgin candle,
Kindled the burning
Of hope and of steam
In the core of my heart,
All through summer`s drought.
Oh! For a physical appearance!
Of an uncertain spring day,
And a drop of shower-
Pure, profuse and sweet!
I have concealed the wall
Invisible to the stranger`s mind
Though green with vines
Of ever growing expectations
Unworthy but sound!
III
May be the reasons well described
So far and so long as I have tried
Neither expected nor anticipated
A vision you might call
Or a visit in my dream
The process yet unknown
My soul fetched me a scene
As real as it surely should be.
The metal threaded wooden bridge
Missing of its first stepping planks-
How many? Oh! That was an illusion
As it was waving and blurred my vision.
A thirty and a few days back,
From the instant it had really appeared
Three times bigger and three times long
The exaggerated width made it strong
The same planked wooden bridge
With some visitors stuck on it.
Some in the middle and some
On the other horizontal sphere
As if there was a deadlock there,
And could not come back either.
For the same very man made bridge
Missing of its three wooden planks,
As I had seen it in my dream
Three times enlarged,
Three times thin,
As if it were a big cobweb,
Hanging down and slightly waving
As fast as my heart was beating!
The bridge with its missing planks
Over the mossy deep channel
Flowing by an artificial island
Meant to create such an impression
As if it were a fanciful wonderland
Alluring people like gilded gold
Burring nature`s worth of years old,
Attracting tourists from their home,
That is solely mercenary in its form.
Disillusioned by my conscious eyes
Wondered how could it linked and tied
My thirsting soul and my spring with me
Gajni and its silhouette of Jhinaigati,
Garo relics of hilly Wilderness –
A home for its ethnic neighbors
Wild beasts and hovering predators!
If my Soul had refracted the vision
I should not miss that noble mission!
But what did it try to tell?
Perhaps I know or I might fail.
IV
Seven days later it fetched me again
Hunting for truth with a measuring tool-
Three times refracted in my vision
Gajni lied bare with its treasures full.
It was a holiday and the rides were dead
Tourists were aware of no mans tread.
But as I preserved a special provision
Gatemen did not feel any hesitation
We were picking the taste of each corner
As it was tough to delay the runner
The far fetching sight of an Indian border
Stood high with bright tall trees
Here the same with brawny green
But there they were all white and cream!
I was eager to meet that face
Which may lure or may embrace
The truth that peeped once in my heart
Can it ever retreat without a beat?
Again that tiny wooden bridge
At the day`s end with a dimming glow
As much as the setting sun bestow
For the first time I dared to step
Avoiding the missing planks
Leaning on its hanging ropes
Better it should not make any mistake
Or it would be a fate to dive down the lake!
What could be the haunted reason?
That my aunt had a horrible vision,
Not very far but the same previous night
Though she concealed and until then didn’t fright-
Spring spared us without shower!
Our group was ready to take a round up
Almost on the verge of saying, “Goodbye”-
A shriek, two, and then three voices!
Trembling souls looked back to the end
Thundered with the mishap done,
My elderly granny fell on her face down!
Just at the stepping point of the floating strip
Juxtaposed to that wooden bridge-
A marvel created to float on the lake
All through artificial and a mission fake!
V
Two times effort failed in a void
My mind was restless and others annoyed
Why had not I been much more careful?
Or, could save my granny`s mishap?
The lurking wilderness tempted all
Extracting freedom from the body`s wall
Forgetful of ages big or small
Entrapped each and every soul
By its all evasive powers of spell!
I could not wipe out my granny`s suffering
That day and even five more
Pricked my mind with her cutting sores
Medication could not heal it though
The silent voice and a coding cipher
Puzzled numbers and a twisted fold!
Yes! May be I should know
How an age of ninety grows!
Who has ever faced the mirror?
Counting wrinkles on the skin,
Or white heirs coiled within?
Each has many stories to tell-
Gajni`s suffering now thread bare
Three times ninety of the years!
Who has ever looked at it?
Wild beauties and its beasts
Are but bleeding every day
Exiled madness and a frozen hay!
Now I could better connect
The untold story that better reflect.
