The Man Who Predicted His Own Death

His legs jerking like a lizard’s tail
while the cops tried to force-feed him,
knew that the dam had been sanctioned,
the officials bribed,
the river banks concretised,
the villages flooded,
the villagers maggoted into cities.

      Yet, he still fought for the river, warning
      that this river will rage again, if dammed, yet again
      just like this river had once flowed from the heavens with such force
      that all the sages and gods had prayed to Shiva,
      to save the earth from being swept away

      To him this river was his mother.
      Just like the trees were family
      to the women from the villages up the river,
      who chained themselves to the trees,
      blocked the loggers, and sang:
      “Kill us if you want to cut the trees.
      We are one and the same”
      until the loggers had to leave.

            A tree is not a forest.
            But even trees know
            that to survive
            they have to offer food through their roots
            and not cross into the canopy of each other.