Nepal is searching its blue sky

Dahlia Tera

And you look, in amazement, at the picture
From the online newspaper,
On the screen of your mobile phone…

At this gigantic dense ‘cloud’
Which is so heavy
That it cannot get into the sky,
And there is no sky….
Because it is not stream
It is smoke, angry smoke,
Like a raging torrent,
Volutes of black, grey, white and off-white,
Yellow and brown…
An hellish smoke
That wraps around the side of the mountain.

‘Nepal going up in smoke; they titled,
You don’t want to believe it!
Fire, forests, flames, destruction …
HORROR!

And you seem to hear the din,
Of the screams and the weepings of the trees:
They are crying.
They understand that
No one can save them anymore.

The fire is voracious.
It leaves blackened skeletons for years,
As a deadly warning to men,
From the luxury California
To the thousands of koalas in Australia,
And today the Himalayan Parbat forests:
Kalikot is burning!

In front of helpless tears
From local people and from the world,
‘Pray for Nepal!’ they beg..
It is right:
Prayer consoles and gives hope.
Won’t it be too late…?
Won’t it be enough?

And your heart hurts
For all the strange tenants
Who jealously inhabited these forests.
The birds which wisely built their nests on the branches,
The squirrels showing their noises on the holes of the trunks,
The woodpecker beating against the bark in search of insects,
The big-eyed owls that move in the night,
Leopards, jaguars, and lynxes
That climb to the shelter
Or to wait for their prey….
Where are you now?
Where did you run away in terror?

Disrespectful and selfish,
Unconscious and indifferent,
We have destroyed balances
that was perfect …
And Mother Nature rightly
Warns us and punishes us;
Because a child,
If s/he makes a mistake must be
Scolded and educated,
SO THAT THE MISTAKE BECOMES A LESSON
For a better future!

Nepal must absolutely not ‘go up in smoke!’
It is OUR responsibility.
It is OUR love for Nepal and for Nature.
Let’s save the forests everywhere
Because they save us….