Rocky Couple (Long Poem)

                                             Rocky Couple

I thought it would be
Another sundry morning

Of course, it turned out to be
A glorious autumn morning
A late fall sunny day
Much of the translucent foliage is gone
No more dazzling wavy
Tree reflections on the
Now almost passive Erie Canal
A tiny boat may still wade through
But it’s a rare sight

Now
Its banks are visited by
Bikers, walkers, or joggers
And lots of birds, squirrels
Spotting an occasional heron 
Is an additional blessing;
Though its locks, canal ways
Look quite decrepit now -
With its broken cement structures
And rusty decaying concrete edifices
Yet, the real nature never abandoned
This once magnificent transportation canal
An artificial water way
Sure,
Years back it brought prosperity, trade,
And modern culture
It reminds me about my own
Native village in the coastal Andhra
A nostalgic boyhood place –
Thousands of miles away
Now, decades of time, and thousands of dollars
Separate us

Up on the mound
Near the wooden bridge
I stopped
Stooped to look into the trickling waters
Flowing from the upper overflow drain 
Just overlooking the intricate 
Connections between the adjacent wetlands
The canal and its feeding streams
There
On the concrete ledges
Some thing awakened my consciousness
“The soft cooing pigeons”
As I stood there motionless
The pigeons courted each other
With their elegant preenings
Peckings 
One of ‘em,
Would gently strut around the other
Touch its beak; give generous
Dose of kisses
And then both would just fly off
To a private hiding place 
Under the bridge
Again they would emerge
Land on the terrace
Take a nibble of the white
Calcium deposits
And do the courting ritual again
To me, the couple
Looked like a pair of 
Gandharvas or rishis
In their clandestine form
From some fabled Hindu mythological
Story.

Me thought
How lucky these little birds are?
They need no Internet cafes, Starbucks lounges
Or cyber matching websites
How totally free, generous are these
Rock pigeons
They meet sans inhibitions, nest,
And raise their young
Without the headache of
Babysitters or kindergartens
Love just comes to ‘em
Naturally
How hard modern man has to struggle
For just a morsel of true love
Be it the carnal bonding
Or the emotional warmth

Through the morning gentle rays
I saw their healthy feathers
Their iridescent neck down
The spotted bluish coat
With their double grayish bands
They radiated perfect health
That pigeon couple
To me, they were
The ideal romantic couple
The whole world exists
Just for them
And they held the key to
Its (true) creation. Copyright 2025 by the author