teesta teetering
sliding down
skidding past
slithering through these serpentine roads
you arrive at the teesta valley
this dizzy spell
to be dazed almost erased
amidst the gurgling diluted coffee river
green whispers of the verdant forest homes
echoing the history and myth of our towns
you slow the car on the bridge
you walk a bit and lean on the railing
remember the old suspension bridge
the river always ran through
the vertiginous feeling of measuring
our years of passage
cross the bridge and be witness
to the small world of commerce
the bridge-end teeming with
shops, tourists, monkeys and stalled vehicles
the chinking of coins offered which
the current of the river cannot silence
some old man chuckles and tells you
how these proffered coins travel and
reach hungry homes of distant places
the river fed by
glaciers rivulets and mountain streams
all merrily joining hands on their
pilgrimage to the Brahmaputra
some lamenting lady will
surely sing for you the river`s dirge
this death of the river`s music
of how the susurrant sighs
reach her ears no more
of how every time she
notices fresh wounds
like landslides lapping the roads
or the river`s shriveled body
the felled trees and the mining
in short
our fluvial identity at stake
Dhirendra Kumar Shah lives in Mumbai, originally from Kalimpong, India. He recently completed his Master`s degree in English Literature with a research paper on Toni Morrison`s novels. He co-edits this journal with Dweep Mustang.
