SERENDIPITY
It is Spring
Outside my window appears a curious new leaf
Green behind the ears
Relishing the first rays of the rising sun
Fraternizing with a million more on many boughs
Swaying to a silent smooth jazz in the soft breeze.
Amidst the pointillistic leaves
A butterfly plays hide ‘n seek
With a frenzied flapping of wings
Sparking an ember from the Ring Of Fire
Spewing into the stratosphere a speck of ash
Settled on the wings of a bird finding warmer climes
At the Southern Pole
The ponderous foot of a famished Emperor penguin
Foraging for krill breaks off an iceberg
Now a stowaway aboard an ocean current
Soon surging through the Horse Latitudes
On a tsunami triggered
By a Moʻai war dance on Easter Island
Summer’s outside my window…
The banished breeze slinks out through the back door
Bronzing the leaf under the burnished sun.
From the faraway Ring of Fire
The speck of dust comes to the rescue -
A soothing shield, as refreshing as a face pack.
The castaway iceberg is now a convection of vapours
Congregating in clouds on high
Fashioned into raindrops
By a jewellery designer in the sky.
Riding on horseback of the trade winds
Is the Monsoon, running riot like a racket of banshees
Stirring up a storm of rain drops
Showering a broken string of pearls
Bouncing off the beleaguered leaf
Bringing relief like the Veil of Veronica
Washing off the grime
Of Nature's whims and Man’s follies.
From its soporific slumber through summer
The speck of dust is swiftly dislodged -
On its onward journey, on the rapids in a gutter
To settle down somewhere yet again
Before being spewed out once more
From the bowels of the Earth.
Now Autumn is nigh ...
The once new leaf has lost its spring of step
Under the weight of much witnessed
From clear days to scorching heat and haze
From gentle breezes to battering winds
From bruising sun to soothing washes of rain.
No longer green behind the ears
Richly draped in the hues of wisdom of seasons
Is it red or purple or orange or yellow?
I can never tell.
There is never an ending.
As it falls the leaf floats away
On the breeze of fresh beginnings
Catching the tail wind of new opportunities
Floating on a stream...
Nourishing the earth or, building a nest
Or, fuelling a bonfire giving warmth
Creating another ember
Another rendezvous with another raindrop
That falls on the new leaf outside my window
Next Spring.
Asleep or, awake
I tremor at thoughts of tomorrow unknown
Of new beginnings
Experiencing the unexpected
Then, I turn to the new leaf.
I’ll experience
The creative coincidences of chaos
In countless ways
Which, I must trust most
When I understand least
That’s Serendipity.
©2020 Ranjan Kamath
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