Bulbous Tree

Butterfly berries skid on the ground

Sand, sand, sand comes to sing a song

Footprints of elephants are still raw

Water, water, water on the side is calm

The elephants have gone, gone for a swim

They have lost their way in the forest

The forest, the forest, the forest of kelps

Is mighty, bowing the elephants of might

Lessons are to be taught, to be learnt

Lessons are to be passed, from womb to womb

The elephants trumpet bubbly trumpets

They trumpet, they trumpet, they trumpet

In awe 

They do not know they will walk ashore soon

They do not know but I have been watching 

Watching, watching, watching these eons 

From ashore

From ashore

From ashore

-

Chandni Girija

Day 06 of 30 | 30 Poems in 30 Days | Global/National Poetry Writing Month #napowrimo

Responded to Maureen's prompt: to find a poem on Poetry International in a language unknown to me. Then, "read the poem to yourself, thinking about the sound and shape of the words, and the degree to which they remind you of words in your own language. Use those correspondences as the basis for a new poem." I ended up reading and reading on Sasja Janssen. Reading the Dutch words aloud was strange. And yet, the sounds made me think of Hindi, Marathi and Malayalam. I don't know how I ended up writing this poem. There was a rolling in my head, and repetition. This one came out much quickly, without much thought. 

Photo by Kritsada Seekham procured at pexels.com