Earth Mother's Resolve

Corona has wiped  off my smile

snatched away my children  raw and ripe

my motherhood is ashamed and abused

my vast seven sea girted state is now

a skeletal frame, all my children are in distress.

Whose curse has brought you Corona

Who has sought you like Aswathama's arrow?

But I'll save my Uttara and her child'

come on - I dare you fight with me.

My rivers, mountains, green valleys

will suck you, my fertile fields

my waters of sacred Ganga, Jamuna

will melt your body and you'll fall

in the sacred purgatorial flames

of my inner soul for final release.

I admit my children are stubborn, proud,

lustfully they invade my inner space

all my warning they defy and ignore

but bear their sins - I am the Mother.

I stretch the limits of forbearance

I too punish them, the arrogant fools

but you have no right to take them

my best and worst are all mine, my own.

Now return to the hole whence you came

my children are in a brown study

they regret, their heads are down

I have put them in solitary confinement

a loud shame has alienated them all.

I know the beginning and the end

You are an intruder, an enemy of  my creation

I'll reform my children with Love and Pardon

you get lost else I'll burn you

and wipe off your unseen hostility

without a trace on my bosom.

Sabita Sahu.