Mango Blossoms

This spring I did not bemoan
the Paradise lost
I awaited mango blossoms
I tasted many times
the delicious juice
that summer would bring
I empathized with conquerors
who came to search for
this fruit in a distant land
Ideally it should have been
the forbidden fruit of paradise
that Eve gave to Adam
This spring I passed
mango groves that scent
the spring air and I did yearn
for the groves lost
lost forever to the city
I thought of a mango grove
near Samrala town
where I went once
looking for a poet
called Lal Singh Dil*
This spring I liberated
my dead and
celebrated the living
This spring I awaited
mango blossoms and
Paradise was regained

*Lal Singh Dil was revolutionary poet of Punjabi who lived a life of immense struggle and died in August 2007. He belonged to a town called Samrala.