How we planted marigold

From one end of Aaraspoora

To the other,

Hoping many more would be

Wedlocked the coming year,

And temple-bells would swing

To marigold showers

From ardent well-wishers far and near.

 

Full grown now in fields of gold petal,

We pluck them like weed,

Burying them back in the ground

Or washing them down what water

Still is in a dry river bed.

In corona times, where is the need

For marigold?

Yet, there is that saying

From the Bard “O, reason not the need,”

For nothing puts greater value on

Marigold than the mere sight of them

In upright droves, happy to be themselves,

Indifferent to being showered, plucked or sold?

 

That wicked Corona could not stop

Their burgeoning,

Is enough reason for us to smile

At the happening.

Flowers just will bloom,

However insistent the gloom.

Even the most arid wilderness

Brings us face to face with a resplendent cactus.

---