Bandipur

The banyans in monsoon mist
Ah, stillness takes root 
far inside the earth,
permeating through my senses...
As longing reaches out and touches
open grasslands hidden in the forest,
The tiger prowls by somewhere near.

The banyan breathed me in early yesterday morning
and I found myself in bamboo growth, leaf, shiver
Only to become camouflage
Of stripes
And tiny wings in momentary rest
Oh but, she hurled me out of bamboo
Root and all
And I was left
Soul in tango
With the tiniest black
Frog

Soon lost 
breathing as mushroom, monitor
and water holes...
shy gaur
Swinging their heads in graceful rhythm
Babblers, warblers and the golden oriole...
Oh she took me far into the earth,
All the way to the night sky...
The banyan
Roots and all, she took me in
And with a careless flick
Sitting in the bus back home,
I was uprooted...