Isla Paraiso

From coral bones, these whitish sands -

They run like salt through empty hands,

And all around, a turquoise sea

Where else would you rather be?

The Areca palms, sea mahuas jade

The mangroves green in shallows wade

Somewhere a pigeon softly coos –

Paradise Isle, alone, footloose

But Paradise has a Janus face,

Roll back the years, and there were days

When the sea arose like a titan wall

Devouring sands and jungles all

Broken shards of coral white

Traces few in the spangled light -

That,  even Eden has its share of wars

Paradise also hides its scars

Only that - the island knows not how to mourn

For Her - moves Time, ahead alone

And all the wounds we count in days

Are seconds in her eternal ways

Perhaps she’s wiser than we’ll ever know

She’s been here longer, seen much more

Perhaps, all this beauty, all this life

Were born of turmoil and of strife

And the judgement’s ours – poorer souls

Who separate cities from atolls

Who sort this world in white and black

Everything, stacked and neatly packed

The peaceful waves lap on my feet,

They whisper soft as they retreat,

‘Paradise – it is every cosmos sand you see

Matters not, you hold it back or let it be…’

14^th March 2024

Written in fond memory of the white sands of Havelock Island, rated amongst the best in the subcontinent  - that remains a hidden Eden, despite the ravages of the tsunami that struck in the early years of the millennium

Cover Image - Radhanagar Beach, Havelock Island (Author's archives)