Holi

Leaves sprout… flowers bloom
Trees smile and chase the gloom
Spring is here to spread the cheer
Shed your inhibitions, have no fear!

Here’s the flavoured milk, say cheers
For the veterans, open the bhang & beers
The fire’s going down, bring more wood
There it lies where once the tree stood

A full moon looks on as winds stoke embers,
in the season of spring, trees get dismembered
Wood chars, so does the plastic trash
flowers singe smearing earth with ash.

Next we get to spray the colours everywhere
Made from mud, paint and chemicals not very rare
But don’t you mind the itch and the stains
It won’t happen till spring comes again!

(a poem written on 3 March 2007)
- Pravin K. Sabnis