Ravi

The river that stood

At the gates of

Lahore

That River that was

Once called

Sacred, Holy and

Pure

The River

was our friend

Before we tried

Controlling her

It flowed

With grace and dignity

And provided life blood to

The crops

Civilizations flourished

By her banks

She had something for

Everyone

She gave life and her blood

To everyone

And then we tried

Controlling her

By altering her course

By restricting, constricting

Her waters

Now

Ravi is drying

Ravi is dying

On her dry river beds

Lie

Few carcasses of fishes

Not far from these carcasses

Are bones of the birds of prey

That came to pick these fishes

Some nomads looked at these river beds

And decided to stay

They built their slums

Grew some crops

Brought their cattle and their children to stay

Than in the monsoon season

As Ravi came back to life

It washed away everything from its dry beds

A shoe, a broken doll, A house

All swept away

All vanished and gone

The river that was silently dying

Turns around and kills a few

Before it dries again

Before it dies again

…………………………………………………………………

Today’s challenge was  writing a poem that is based in the natural world