Devika Hazra

For aeons 
I have wandered like a vagabond 
in search of myself,
Like the parched landscape of summer,
Waiting to surrender to the softness of monsoon rain;
And now the noise within my mind 
yearns for some kind of silence.
Like the tranquility that permeates through the hollow of space.
I have been in search for a drop of stillness 
for long as I can remember – 
trying to quiet the mind. 
I’m weary of my senses,
Of the wars that wage unannounced. 

​I want to embrace rest.
I want to wrap myself —
in the placidity of the ocean mist 
and allow its waters to run over me,
and hold me still. 
I want to lay on the earth 
to feel its unyielding strength and tender care. 
I want to stare at the sky 
and be awed by its expanse. 
And watch an eagle fly over me, 
I want to admire the regality of its flight —
without being stirred by the desire for wings. 
I want to lie down just for a moment, 
and be enveloped by the eternity of time
and steeped in the silence of space.

– d.h.