Anna Sujatha Mathai
No, my name will not
remain
on these stones and
earth
that I loved so much,
or on this grass filled
with wild flowers
where I lay, mad with
youth
all one summer’s day.
But the same wind
that blew leaves so
playfully
after the summer rain,
will touch these stones,
that earth.
That same rain in
which I ran
with my loved one, –
laughing, happy,
will gently fall upon this
earth.
Voices of playing children that I hear
today
will still be heard.
But they’ll be other
children shouting,
other lovers listening.
These stars, that moon
in whose aching, lonely
light I lay,
thinking of the lost love
who’d never come
again,
will shine each night
upon my earth –
on those who love, and those who grieve
alone,
and that harsh,
scorching sun
which finally burned to ash
the fierce element of
my heart,
That sun –
will continue to burn.
First published in Life on my side of the street, published by Sahitya Akademi, 2005.