Atmakranti

Flying past the magnificent and ruins,
I seek those wings of lasting freedom,
amidst all wars, change and death,
I seek those wings, for the sky is where
all that majestic remain untouched

She flew across the skies leaving a trail of rainbow on the path behind. The clouds with their play of shapes as if a shifting dream surrounded her as she leaped higher with a thrust akin to those flying machines. The unseen world of the clouds illuminated by the divine light of the sun welcomed her arrival for she was a queen who pierced her veils after years of blind darkness.

Her elegant and regal wings of freedom had taken her to the many cities, towns and nations of countless races; flying atop she saw great minarets burn to the ground, mansions demolished by the winds and plump men who were filled with delight at her sight slaughtered by the depraved.

She had seen castles built from brick to marble and reduced to dust and smoke in the blink of an eye by both man and nature for a reason she could never know. The flying machines that often flew past her in a flash disappeared in the depth of the seas or the dense foliage of the jungles emitting fire and smoke as a mark of its end.  

She had witnessed it all for ages past, protected by the vast skies where the wreaked earth couldn’t reach. She flew like a shadow from a distance past the setting sun, the crimson twilight and soaring peaks that sometimes kissed the clouds.

There was a time when as an infant she would chirp for hours as dawn gave in to dusk, with her bowel sizzling with hunger. No one came for her so, she relished the skies hoping to one day own its vastness with her independent wings.

Now, she is no longer helpless but the queen of her own having conquered the winds with her flight. Soaring and gliding past the reaches and passes still unknown to man; not a soul beside her to comfort and warm her since timeless yet not a hint of despair for which living can match the skies.

Eagles with sharp eyes and an unrelenting persona likened to a sovereign king cherish her presence from afar, and she with her head held high and eyes across the pathless skies revel at the benign of those uncrowned kings. One’s destiny is to reap, another’s to fight and her destiny is to fly — far above the rivers, the oceans, the mountains, wars, skirmishes, and the changing love and hate of men.

But she is all not aloof from the earth beneath! When her bowel roars once a day, she dives like her fellow Kingfisher into a river or ocean and gets hold of a fish that allays her hunger boosting her strength to fly for the rest of the journey.

Flying for aeons, she wishes for nothing much or else but her wings to keep flapping till the sun and moon no longer rise, and the sky is lost. I, a timeless wanderer followed her through ships, cars and planes to know where this magnificent flight is to end.

I had been let down by many a man and woman, shattered and broken both my faith and will to seek joy. None could give me an answer for none seemed to have known freedom or joy — stifling and stuttering their way out of an endless sea of predicaments.

But, one day as I sat lost staring at the skies with a deep wish to become one with its light and colours, from the corner of my eye emerging from the eastern skies I saw her — a queen among dreams. She flew on and on past the endless and pathless horizon glowing like the sun yet serene like the moon.

Thus, I knew my destiny was to seek her to find the source and end of her rare freedom and joy. It has been aeons since I have been following her, sitting and rowing this tiny boat I gaze at her wings and feel helpless with my confounded hands.

Today I find her not flying across but towards the sun. I know very well that this being her last flight. As she with passing time becomes a shadow of a distant memory I sigh and gaze at the shimmering waters about me. A feather lands on my hair, holding it with my fingers I come to know where all the freedom and joy lay. In this near endless journey of a solitary feather, I too have flown without wings on this earth itself with all its wars and calamities.