Disorder (Poem)

Dis(order)

Everywhere
I 
Go or drive
Everywhere I 
Wearily walk
Or
Leisurely stroll
Immersed in endless thoughts
Or
Silent quietude 
Trying to watch
A flycatcher here
A bumblebee there
Or, a winter black butterfly
Feasting 
On Arka (Calotropis) flowers
Then
I am shocked with
The spectacle of outrageous
Dirt, debris, irritating air
Pollution (AQI*) all around following me
It’s there in many Indian cities
At all places without exception
Even the
The outlaying village suburbs
Suffer too; they
Are not spared either.
Yet -
I did not notice
This much of manmade disorder
In my youth
Nor the menacing troupes
Of 
Mosquitoes with bloody thirst
In the hot tropical southern states

 
When I return
To the cold Northern Latitudes
The air is clean
The skies – with an eye piercing bluish dome
Here too
During my walks 
I
Am pained by the careless
Wayside trash on the roadside
Empty
Marlborough packets, Red Bull cans,
Cigarette butts, Fiji water bottles,
Tiny bottles of spirit

Soon spring will 
Bring a plethora
Of 
Roadside cleaners,
Rotary Club volunteers
Or
Local school children
Meticulously collecting the 
Wayside trash.
My eyes do not perceive
Disorder
In nature, in the interior woods
Or
On the banks of desolate streams,
Waterfalls, or the meandering creeks
Of the now abandoned Erie Canal

The backyard is strewn 
With fallen stumps
Decaying tree branches
Heaps of last season’s autumn
Foliage with pinecones, hawthorn berries
They’ll soon become nutritious
Compost for future ground cover
Or, silky moss
Bringing out wild geraniums, trout lilies,
And bloodroot blooms
…
After decades of 
Hard working 
Environmentally conscious citizens’
Contributions
Now
The communities 
Try to bequeath
Clean water, pure oxygen-rich air,
And 
Fecund fertile topsoil filled ground
To
The innocent, yet to be born
Future generations.

What an invaluable treasure
This healthy ambience
Of
Verdant gorgeous nature?
Not everything in the world
Need be touched by modern man
Nor it needs to be accounted
By penny pinching bean counters 

Copyright 2025 by the author

*Air Quality Index