Landslide
By KV Raghupathi

Seasonal rains

spilling and pouring

unreasonably and copiously

with the mountains and hills

sweating and stumbling into the ground

as if wreaking vengeance;

land splitting like beans and quakes in darkness

melting like lava, gliding down

crushing and pushing

trees and boulders out of rage

in the boisterous water;

a Holocaust, indeed,

a cruel landslide,

on the slopes rolls on

tumbling resort homes in trundling muck

tossing like rocking boats;

churned mud spiraling in the wind

birds fluttering, rats rattling, snakes skittering

floating dead cows and buffaloes

wondering as though the cosmic calendar changed

as though the forest land doomed and damned;

two generations of children

men and women in sleep

house after house swept

buried and swallowed

even before awaking to the morning birds’ calls;

on the edge, there stood

beneath the twisted hanging tree of the sliced earth

a mother elephant sheltering her baby

bold enough to thwart the gushing water and wind;

a father and a mother and their lone daughter, close-by

in terror clutching the dangling bough,

the only survivors like Noah’s children of the night’s tragedy.

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It is just one more terrifying tale of climate change!