EPIC Poem: A LETTER, by Ravichandra Chittampalli

(For Rowena Hill)

I

That dark night
You left them
To their variety

And stepped out
In the rain
Beyond the threshold.

Would they ever guess
What you search for
In this strange hour?

Would they ever know
That forest paths
Grow into nights?

Not for them
The knowledge
Of the wild deer:

Behind the eye
The rending tiger,
The burst of blood.

You called out
But the pitch
Of your voice

Was not for ears
Grown dull with
Casual sounds.

Ah, woman,
The forest listens,
Stops in its walks

And waits…waits
For your approach,
Hesitant, anxious.

Under the first tree
You stand transfixed
As night drips on-

Crystal drop after drop
The sky. The tree,
The path and you.

II

Green upon green
Adumbrate till
Darkness is all.

Strand by strand
Your tresses spread
One with night.

Only the fireflies,
Those mocking stars,
Dare the beast.

The drunken laughter
Echoed behind you
Oblivious to all:

The cry of the stag
Summoning its heard
Away from the prowl,

The shriek of the nightjar
Freezing its victim
Before the kill,

The silent feet
That forever run
Past all that run.

All, all ignored
By hearts that shut
The night out.

The cricket rubs
Its wing again
Softly yet it rains.

The first tree stood
Hesitant on the edge,
Hesitant were your feet.

Beyond the edge,
Deep within,
Resonates the growl.

Fear strikes its
Adze upon the bole,
Nothing else is heard.

III

You are an imprint
Of deep darkness,
A tree of night.

The beast of prey
Crouches on your branch,
Silent walks the eye.

Upon the back
Of a rearing forest
Slither the rain drops.

The salt of blood,
The sweet of flesh,
Wake the fire.

Only a kill,
A smothering leap,
The crunch of teeth,

Breaking the skin
In a gushing red
Can soften the breath.

You crouch there
All sinew and memory,
A placental night.

Beyond the trench,
Within the walls,
Talk the masks;

Safe in their
Assumptions of time,
Of day, of night.

Irreconcilable
As the glacial lips
Of yawning crevasse

They talk of you
Beyond their reach,
Laugh their hatred.

You are that hint
Of deep darkness,
The tree of night.