THE EVERGREEN TAMARIND TREE

There in the cisterns of my memory,

coursed a blessed childhood,
where summer forgot its purpose and
winter stayed a little longer,
around a tamarind tree so exotic.
When along the roads, few tamarinds stood fence
with foliage balding and greying in the dusty sun,
there was SHE, this exotic tamarind tree, named Kodampuli
from my early memories,
with her mushroom bulge of greenery,
like a dome of pistachio ice-cream scoop in perfect round,
on top of that thick, single brown trunk
that could never fit my hug ever.
From her shoulders, my traditional swing of
the yearly ritualistic Onam hung,
flying me across her lush green edges, to get a peek
of the blue skies, residing in small patches, amongst the green fields of trees.
And on every evening before the exams,
my feet unfailingly carried me to her green laps of musing,
for those evergreen blessings fertilising my brain’s soil.
My heart’s grief ebbing, under her green apron snuggle,
I remember well,
her caresses and the songs with the wind she sang,
the friends strange and amiable she introduced for my loneliness,
I remember well today,
today as I stand before her –
her mutilated and butchered body in the backyard of my ancestral home;
still standing erect, as the faithful post for our then favourite game of hide and seek.
She stands there, with her scraped scalp held high, still, still evergreen.

http://www.sparkthemagazine.com/the-evergreen-tamarind-tree/