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Best Poems From
RANI TURTON
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45.
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The River Ran Red: The Kalinga War
The river ran red; thousands died as they gave their lives
The king bowed his head; Widows and orphans this day
Families in mourning, and he, only he, was the cause.
The river ran red. Resistance at the cost of lives
Humans and animals died side by side
The mutilation and the pain, the Daya flowing red, flowing red
And thus it came about that
He knelt and cheeks wet, the King wept.
Edicts in stone that speak. Misery and bloodshed
But no glory. As far from glory as conscience can be
Watching the mayhem in misery..
The river ran red. The King wept.
Copyright: Rani Turton
Rani Turton
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46.
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The Wild, Wild Rain
Cold wind slapping tree branches,
The moon, frenzied, hidden, wonders when
The tempest and the temper will end.
Not yet: a lot more to go. the soldier in the train
The tramp in the tunnel,
The lone young man in a beige raincoat
Hurry along alone.
Then comes the rain, stinging,
The wild, wild rain, the cold drops
Stinging the eyes, the wind tearing at chimney pots
Some tiles will surely fall
The wild, wild rain will come
Dropping, dropping, onto the passive ground
Dark streets empty, the silence and the rain
The silence and the rain
Step to a wild, wild dance
In the darkened empty lane.
Copyright: Rani Turton
Rani Turton
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47.
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Walking Home Through the Rain
Walking home through the rain reminds me
Of those long past school days
The wet tie flying in the wind
The mud in those stiff academic shoes
Reflections and dreams of insurrection
Walking through the rain reminds me
Of trying to keep my wet shoes clean
First day at work rain drumming down
On my laborious earnest dampened head.
Walking through the rain in a foreign land reminds me
How often I longed for home: the slashing familiar rain
In alleys lined with laburnum: how even the cold betrayed me
The drops fell into eyes and then in rivulets
Leaked out treacherously again
Walking through the wet wet rain
Walking working wishing wondering
Waiting for a kind of fate
Waiting for kind fate
Fatally kind; rain, when you fell on parched land
Only then did my soul, apaised, try to understand.
Copyright: Rani Turton
Rani Turton
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48.
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You Were, You Are
You were, you are
An indissociable part of my destiny.
At dusk when the birds settle in their nests
A calm comes upon me.
I think of the stanzas and sentences
That this hand transcribed into poems.
I think of the emotion in your eyes
Silent, unspoken.
I think of the years transcribed into days.
Oh, was that wise.
The world has a way of rending and rendering.
The world can tear you into two.
When in the silence of the night I wonder about you
The tears, tears, fill up my eyes.
You are, you were and always will be
An indissociable part of my destiny.
Copyright: Rani Turton
Rani Turton
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