YERE YERE PAUSA

Yere yere pausa
Come to me rain,
let the drops percolate,
collect in plastic tubs
drained through pipes
made of dreams and denim
 
Tula deto paisa
I’ll pay you
with upturned faces
and wet laundry
put out to dry
to taunt the
yellow mellow sun
 
Paisa zhala khota
The money was false
Fake coins jingling
against my pocket
that held lint
and a stray leaf
and two packets of Polo
 
Paoos aala motha
But still you came rain
heavily
breaking tiles and
glass ceilings
with your shards of glass
no, diamond,
reflecting and refracting
there are rainbows in your eyes
 
Ye guh ye guh sari
Shower of rain, come here
drip onto my nose
and fall into my car,
run across my palm
scurrying drip drops
 
Majhe madki bhari
Fill my pots with rain dear
Uproot saplings,
Tender, rootless
take them away from here
from me
take them to the forest
replant them
bury them beneath red earth
let them grow
in fields of sugarcane
leaving the water here, for me
 
Sar aali dhaoon
Your shower came running
sprinting across tar roads
dodging cyclists, bikers
and holes in this tar road
you ran up hills
slipping through plastic bags
and dark playful puppies
trying to stop you,
borrowing your time
but you ran to me
to my  house on the hill
and burst in through the metal grille
 
Madke gele vahoon
My pots were washed away
I believed in you rain
but you came, you saw,
you took what I loved
but I lied too
I promised payment,
misty fog
rivers made of paper boats
and I gave you nothing
I am sorry
 
*The poem is loosely translated from a Marathi nursery rhyme whose original lines are retained as first line of each stanza, followed by its translation and the rest contributed by the author.