A poignant poem by Rituparna, about Nature and lockdown, exclusively for Different Truths.

An untimely autumn leaf wanders lonely in the air, singing saga of a wanderlust.
Locked up in the lockdown mode, she longs
to disentangle herself from shackles of this
urban hood, to spread wings of desire.

She torches the woods of her heart that
tells the tales of untold hills of a back mall,
giving its warmth of love to the bleak
northern slopes of Darjeeling Himalayas.

She ripples with the fawning springs, sprinkling love on the trident leaves that adorn the nook and crannies of Happy Valley.

She hums with the swarming bees, oozing
out in search of food, for body and soul, and
hiving again in interlocking spurs of
Rock Gardens.

She basks in the mystic dawn with patience in her heart, to wait for the wintry chill that drops snow from the pines as dandruff fall down from the unkempt hair of a mystic monk.

She withstands the north wind and its vigour
with all grace and faith in mind: when winter has set in, lilting spring can’t be far behind.

She is a puny autumn leaf with a penchant to drag me out from mental lockup of confined days, to take me to that sublime layer of my bygone Darjeeling days.

Photo from the Internet