Mono Monday Challenge: Street

In the dark that falls before the dawn,
when the dew has settled on the thorn,
when the stars have been obscured by clouds,
a silence covers all things in shrouds.
No wind sighs in the mulberry tree,
no firefly glimmers wild and free,
a shadow has wrapped the night in gloom,
it's silent as a deserted tomb.

All of a sudden a lapwing's cry
cuts the black silence as it flies by,
again and again it slashes the dark
that haunts the empty, desolate park.

Anguish, sorrow pours from it's throat,
it wings in the night, note after note;
I open my window so the light
will flood the dark of this wretched night.

Why does it cry so miserably?
Why is it so solitary?
All I know is that loss and ache
are left behind in the lapwing's wake.

--Meera Uberoi (1952 – 2012)

I have driven past this field many times over the years and used to marvel at the number of lapwings that nested here at a time when they were supposedly becoming rare. There are no lapwings now; instead there are bulldozers and earthmovers, tipper trucks and cement stacks. And streets. New streets. No-one is living in them yet; no-one can live in them because there are no houses. But the houses will come. The lapwings won't come any more though.


Thanks to Trisharooni for hosting Mono Monday this month and setting this week's theme of 'Street'.