Achingliu Kamei (Women and Spring)

Achingliu Kamei

ARRIVAL OF SPRING

As dusk approaches, the world begins to be still, 

And the pacifying, gentle rustling of the trees 

Brings reassurance. 

It's as if all the wrongs of the day could be righted

In the dwindling daylight of saving time. 

A stunning sunset. It's as if one could choose, 

Like an artist, the colors one wants to use

And create a masterpiece of our lives. 

The spring's waft and draft swerve through the trees,

Bittersweet longing for the winter melancholia

Yet welcoming the new season.

It's as if the cyclical time has not fulfilled

Its destiny and yearns for another season,

Ready for the highs and lows, the ebbs and flows.

This ache, this prick of living, this vacuity of life 

The young is yet to know. It's as if the young

Never foresee the world's weight 

Net to come on their shoulders, never

Conditioned for the burden. Let the nightfall 

And spring comes, their grips ever so tight. 

It's as if the intimidating darkness of the night

May win, but it is also a time of test and tribulation, 

Preparing us for the rejuvenation

And the healing that comes with the arrival of spring.

***

Bio: Dr. Achingliu Kamei, a short story writer, poet, and ultra-runner, teaches Literature at DU and has a Ph.D. from Jawaharlal University. She has published two collections of folktales: Naga Tales, Dawn, and Naga Tales Morning Blush, and four Poetry books: Songs of Raengdailu, Headspace, Bluest Water at the River Crossing, Restless Oceans, and Liangtuang Pu, Illustrated Novella for Children. Her work is widely anthologized and published in several journals, including Setu Bilingual.

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Setu, March 2024