poem by Varghese Kuncheria

[Varghese Kuncheria]

unpublished

Joji Varghese Kuncheria

Ode to an Arabian Summer


Oh, come Arabian Summer!
Bring the early heat wave,
From the West Saharan desert,
Come and penetrate my body.

Oh, come to renew my sinews!
With your scorching heat;
You purge me of all my dirt,
And cleanse me from within.

You are harsh on me at times,
Your heat penetrates my body,
And cruel and jealous like Hera,
To torment us all this season.

You are kind to others elsewhere,
But your solar flares are heavy on us,
You confine us to the doors inside
Most days of the summer season.

Is it to ripen the green dates?
You turn it gold and to dark ruby,
To swell it from sour to sweetness,
Making it the manna of the desert.

The heat shoots up so very high,
As the sun comes up in summer,
With vengeance on his wings,
Like the wrath of heaven unfolded.

Is it to create the treasure below?
In the deepest deep of the desert,
The treasure that turned our lives,
From camels to cars over night.

A study warns it to be too hot,
For humans to survive by 2100,
In the oil-rich Persian Gulf region,
Too dang hot during the summer,
It hangs over like Damocles’ sword.


~*~

Joji Varghese Kuncheria, India (currently in Oman)

— I'm an Indian national working in Muscat, Oman, since 2004. I was born on February 14, 1953, in India. I did my M.A. in English literature from Christ Church College, Kanpur (Kanpur University, India). I'm a senior Lecturer, teaching British and American literature to the undergraduate students in a college in Oman. I started writing poems while I was working as a teacher in Ethiopia (1978–1985) and have continued to write, after a long gap, from 2009 onwards. I'm very passionate about the peaceful co-existence of the people anywhere in this planet, and cherish to see such a world order. I'm a good chess player too.

~*~