Darkness pulls over the full moon’s collar

As a December day dawns,

The carillons of Christmas chimed and clattered

When the Indian Ocean’s horizon shook,

Crumbled, shattered and scattered.

On the rim of that single moment

The sea bed erupted in a churning tsunami

The force of swirling currents hurled and tightened

While women gathered fish as the waves’ spill

Of beckoning death hovered over the innocent watchers.

Black water rose, rolled from the sky’s depth,

Engulfing shacks, dogs, bodies, palm trees,

Lanka, the pearl’s tears, the road to Ramayana in

A single blow and the iron-fisted lion made

The world’s orphans her own.

After the deluge, I travel in dreams

Beyond where saffron seas lie, fluid beneath

A pastel sky of endless eddying shorelines,

Shadowed tides where silent interludes

Merge with weeping dirges of the dead.

Daisy Abey

                                Back To Top