It swallowed our bitterness with no dregs
ferried us shore to shore on its wavy surface
took our hearts with it, held a world within
and snoozed royally under moonlight .
It heaved, swelled up with wandering water
which sang to the hum of the earth,
an image in childhood stuck deep in my mind,
now shrunk to the bones like a child in famine.
Its soul gnaws and kneads with mood swings
sometimes serene, sometime fierce,
tells tales of choking with wastes and neglect,
yet mute it lingers, quite women-like.
Straddling between past and the present
rivers tread on old paths carrying their curse,
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