SOIL
The soiled earth
Weeps in distress
As a spiraling stench
Rises in the air
The soil that birthed
The green tirelessly
Through eons and eons
Lies scorched, scarred
Charred and tarred
A wasteland mourning
The loss of all those
Leaves in branches
Like green banners
Under the blue canopy.
The clayey soil
Moist and malleable
The potter’s turning wheel
Spins shapes in sizes
Divine images created
In the potter’s colony
The soil and the spirit
Fused in magical wonder
The artist smiles
The sculpture of gods
Anointed in clay and soul- dust
Basks in the glory of creation.
Yet the soil weeps
The teeth of tractors
The poison of pesticides
Excavation and earth work
Mining, blasting, dynamiting
Ripping the earth
Yet the enduring silent soil
Remains the ground beneath the feet
On which we stand upright.
SUMMER RAIN
The listless leaves
On the branches
Stirred as the first drops
Of healing rain
Caressed every pore
Each drop trickled
Into the roots
Of the silent trees
The falling rain on leaves
The falling rain on the river
The falling rain on flowers
Sang the rain songs that
None could sing
Sanjukta Dasgupta
Sanjukta Dasgupta is a renowned academic, author, poet and translator. She is the President of Intercultural Poetry and Performance Library, Kolkata.