Our rain, raining ....

By Renton de Alwis

Early yesterday morning, it was raining outside. Late into the night, I read an interesting essay on Post-colonialism as seen through the promotion of classical English literature. This ‘poem’ is perhaps, an outcome of the fine mix of these two happenings. When I woke up, I saw the havoc created by rain. A minor flood in an area of our land, considered to be hard of rain. I don’t know why I thought of cats and dogs.... I went in again to my room, to change the earlier title of this poem. It was “It’s raining...it’s raining.”

Still to rain a cat or a dog,

yet, "It's raining cats and dogs."

English;

strange
as it is,
is The Bard's language.

He gave life

to ‘Romeo et Juliet’
a French couple,
to kill them both,
again and again.

Othello

the dark prince,
a ‘Moor’s tale,
again,
to kill,
to die.

Desdemona and many,

like her,
left in eternal doubt.
'To be or not to be',
a prince, yet again

Hamlet,

wounded soul
of foul deeds.

Dreams dreamt

in mid-summer
cold winters.

Of lords, serfs,

kings, queens
sons, daughters
and lovers,
slain,
murder most foul
dead or alive.

They hunted

were hunted.

Robbed, clean

and dry, yet
never were robbed,
for how
can another
rob you
of what's theirs?

Still raining ...

no cat or dog has fallen.

Thank ye God

for that
for that would
then be cited
'cruelty to animals.'

For us this rain ..

bring blessings,
the soil,
enriched
to feed,
embrace,
Sun's green.

It’s our rain;

‘Morasurana wasse’.
Not the one,
to mark the end;
‘Murugasan Warusawa’. 

It’s our rain

to feed the 'tanks.'
No! our reservoirs,
built by kings
to catch
every drop
of rain
that falls.

It rained

then,
in season
now,
that's changed,
warm
is the globe
with soot
that Dickens had
little Pip clean,
off the chimney,
made with coal
from Liverpool.

Winters cold,

‘churu’, ‘churu’ rain,
migrant birds,
fly away,
to make sure
power bills
are saved.

Like was sung

by the kids
"Rain, oh! Rain
Go away,
to come again,
another day."

We want

our rain to stay.

Do not flood

do not stray,
no dogs or cats,
only drops.

Rain, rain ...

come and stay
to come again
another day!

18 December 2012

Just 3 days to go for the end of the Mayan Calendar…