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Tsunami in verse
Coastal - carnage
The clock struck nine-thirty
A train on rail
Vehicles on wheels, casual
A massive weight from sea
Crashed into the city
Smashing, and splashing
A livelihood
Second attack and a third
Many more, one after the other
(intensifying the vigour)Atack by sea, at a furious rise
Gulped the city of Galle, into a cavity of disaster
Terror of Scylla - from sea
Tsunami - waves shut across
Sprung within the ground, splashed
In a fountain of force,
Back drove and crashed
Concrete walls fell
Babies, children, mothers, husbands
With agonies of those remained, carried
In a rushing wave to sea
There's no reason why
Death piles lie, every street, every
town, every corner that mobbed,
Every hospital, every police alert
What curse, what spell of dragonish beam cast,
This blood-thirst massacre.
Eyes of those dead
And eyes of those that
are living
True proof of agony that passed
There is so much among the dead
Day by day it increases
Impelling our hearts to doom
The day 26th - dooms day
Innocent babies line up,
As cattles and dogs, they die
Some yet to be found hidden in sea
Some have lost homes, place
of living
And live with; what they only own,
Sea brought them to another land
Its ravenous spirit and strength unkind
How could we have thought the
sea to be vile?
Have we been out of rites these days?
What energy has been out, in such a grinding of plates
Why was the number too large, does it have to be Tsunami?
Or something else, that could have been less
Why did it grind too hard, to give a too large number?
To panic us? or, it shouldn't be so
This was the cruellest attack on Earth.
- Neetha Haththotuwe Gamage, Galle
****
Oh, tsunami
You are accusing me and cursing me
You human beings
Of having caused the death of many people
And the destruction of many properties
But you do not care to think about
The destruction you have been causing to me
Your creator sustainer and protector
The earth the sea and the air
In short the NATURE
You have been boring into the earth
To the very depths of the bowels
Denuding the forests wantedly
Disturbing and destroying the sea bed
Polluting the air and even damaging
The Ozone layer all of which
I have been maintaining
For you to live in happiness and
harmony
But you have been going about
Causing injuries pain and destruction to me
In spite of my frequent little warnings
In your avariciousness to have more pleasures
To show your strength over others
You have been causing destruction to me
Who had created you and is
Sustaining you without expecting any returns
You ask me why I have killed recklessly
Innocent children the old and the sick
The living beings in the sea, animals and birds
The trees and the plants on the earth and in the sea
Have you forgotten how many such beings and vegetation
You had killed and destroyed daily
Raping women abusing infants and children
Murdering all and sundry
For your pleasure, profit and glory
Have you forgotten the number
of people killed
And the properties damaged by you
By waging wars among you
Have you forgotten the destruction
You have been causing
By your experiments of weapons of war
You explore the earth the sea and the space
And want to build palaces in the space
For you to go there on excursions
You want to colonize other planets
For all of which you are devastating and destroying me
Instead of keeping the place I have given you
In a good condition and living in
it contentedly
I have been bearing all your
destructions patiently
But you have been going beyond the limit
So I had given you a warning again
This time a little stronger
You can see from what I had done in a few minutes
What I can do if I come out a
little harder
- Arul
***
Minutes collapsed, memories left...
Thoughts were pretty high
Smiles sailing on all the faces
Under the last gloomy sun
Nobody felt the tears ahead
Appeared, a peaceful day - alas
Minutes collapsed, memories left
It came, it took, it went with the wind
- Vigneswarakaanthan
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