Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca (Children's World)

Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca

Lines to an Invisible Owl

I heard the owl the other night

Impossible to see it for the deepening light

He hooted loudly at very passing car

Heard him clearly from the window ajar

Often so loud I think there are two

"hoo-hoo-oooo" "hoo-hoo-oooo"

So I asked a few words of wisdom for the world’s plight

He said, ‘Everything in God’s good time would be alright.’

 

Owl Sequel

"There's no owl here,'' my neighbor said

This owl is real, not just in my head

I heard its hooting loud and clear

In the tree by the church, so very near,

Someday I'll see this owl in person

Before winter comes and the weather worsens

I'll get my daughter to take a picture

Then I'll post the poem with a sticker!

 

Bird Talk

(A poem fusing the present with a childhood memory)

I really wouldn’t want to be

A bird perched on a snowy tree

For if the branch was heavy with snow

I might fall down to the ground below

And then I wouldn’t make a sound

Frozen solid with white stuff crowned

And if you shovel, this is all I ask

Do your due diligence with that task

The sky too is white with all that snow

Remember I have nowhere to go.

 

I remember how we buried the crow

Under a stone where the grasses grow

And the Parsi* boy said a short prayer

While we stood around our grief to share

I knew quite young that birds have feelings

Nature has a way of imparting wise teachings

I have never forgotten that crow

It has helped me learn and think and grow.

 

The boy went away to a foreign land

But the burial of the crow was just so grand

Still visits my memories when I think about it

Much more than I truly care to admit.

 

There was a bird once perched on our flower pot

We named him Cheep but he did not know, or he forgot

That we loved birds,

So he disappeared into the wild

I have loved birds since I was a child.

 

*Parsi: Zoroastrian community who migrated to the Indian subcontinent from Persia during the Muslim conquest of Persia of CE 636–651; one of two such groups (the other being Iranis).

 

Bio: Kavita Ezekiel

In a career spanning over four decades, Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca has taught English in Indian colleges, AP English in an International School in India, and French and Spanish in private schools in Canada. Her poems are featured in various journals and anthologies, including the Journal Of Indian Literature published by the Sahitya Akademi and the Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English. She also enjoys writing Nonfiction. Kavita has authored two collections of poetry, ‘Family Sunday and Other Poems’ and ‘Light of The Sabbath.’ She holds a Master of English and American Literature Degree from the University of Bombay, and a Master of Education Degree from Oxford Brookes University, England.

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Setu, December 2022 :: Children's World 2023