(it seems our normally very brief winter will be briefer this year)
Gliding through the mist
Winter alighted
On my palm-
It held in its beak
A marigold promise
Of staying long-
Its plumage not as bright-
Eyes listless
feet, in fear-
In a feeble chrysanthemum note
It crooned into my ears
About the lost bees-
Then I don’t know why
It threw all its song into the fire
And left me to a pitiless sun so soon-
Posted for Susan’s Midweek Motif ~ Climate Change @ Poets United
sumanar/lekha 
You tell the world burning up so well – I fear the sun too.
Oh, dear winter! It is weakened here, too, though the winds are strong. You personify her and put her into action brilliantly. I particularly love “marigold promise” and “chrysanthemum note” and the winter singing to the narrator. “Why this Hurry” is a great title–asked of the winter, it also describes the need for us to act.
Our own winter is just weird this year (and not in a good way). We’ve been dancing between unseasonably warm or ridiculously cold. Our wintry bird is losing its mind.
I like your depiction of winter. Sad, how it throws its song into the fire. But, that’s what’s happening.
Oh Sumana, you have expressed this so well. The vanishing bees, the brief moderate “winter” (we didnt even get winter this year here!), the listless flower’s song falling into the flame……..a powerful write.
A wonderful poem!! Thank you Sumana.
Sigh. This is the new norm that we have caused and must adapt to. Until someone figures out, how to get every nation to agree to a new protocol that reverses the damage done to the planet. Sadly, we’re too greedy to realize that we’re killing ourself, by our actions.
A sad tale but spoken beautifully. Love this Sumana!
I could feel the sadness so wonderfully expressed
I love the winter metaphor:
‘Winter alighted
On my palm-
It held in its beak
A marigold promise
Of staying long’
and then crooned a song about lost bees. Beautiful and sad, Sumana. Our winter has arrived with frost and ice in this corner of Norfolk.
I’ve read how climate change is dramatically erasing insect populations, upon which entire food chains once depended — this poem is so rich with the pathos of a nature once present now vanishing, and the lonely world which remains for us. Well done.
Temperature got to 46.6C today in Adelaide, South Australia the highest ever recorded, Luckily I live closer to the sea so it was only 43.3C! Yes, global warming is definitely with us.
Vivid images! And the pitiless sun is something we hear of from story books up here. We are in the depths of winter with minus digits as usual. But yes, we signs and feel the shift in seasons here too.
Yes! And what about the bees? So much, too much.
thank you.
‘It held in its beak
A marigold promise’
Such a lovely line.
An elegant, cautionary tale told in such evocative imagery. The last lines stay with me! Beautiful write!