THE FORK-TAILED SWALLOW 


Perched on the dark wire is the fork-tailed swallow,
Grief flowing through her empty heart hollow,
For the rain drops & her lost mate her thirsty eyes follow,
Lugubrious she sits thirsty, in deep melancholia wallows!


She flies, in the air takes a few circles,
Comes back to sit and warble,
Trying hard to sing
Her mate, to her, to bring.


Trying to attract through her vocalisations,
Cut away from all socialisation,
She craves for her mates affections
And his acceptation.


She waits for a few droplets of rain,
All day in vain,
With a parched throat and a drying heart,
Waiting all day, till the shadows depart.


Her melancholic melodies,
Turn into a threnody,
She sings to herself,
Waiting for her own farewell.


Her farewell from this dear earth,
Misty eyes ready to close, her syrinx falling short
Of producing any sounds,
Then the cool, sudden showers just confound.


She stirs herself, wakes up from her death like slumber,
Shakes her wet, silky feathers 
Flies up and down the blue and umber,
Sadness she now lets not encumber.



She waits now with a new zest,
Flying and dancing in troughs and crests,
Her mate she will find she now believes,
Her destiny will not deceive.



She will sit on the wire, hide amidst the leaves,
Till her fate to her bequeaths
Her dear partner and mate, for her to receive,
In anticipation and happiness she forgets all griefs.



Her forked-tail she sways, 
With the droplets she plays,
Her patience and hopes getting a new life,
She will continue waiting in peace, devoid of any strife.

©Madhumita