Petals in the Wind

By Chimanlal Patel

The title of the book PETALS IN THE WIND is also the title of his longest poem in this book. It depicts events that lead to India's partition into two separate states, India and Pakistan. It is about the greatest exodus on earth that took place in 1947 when millions of people flee from their country in search of another home in a distant land. In the process they got separated from their families, friends, relatives, and loved ones never to meet them again like petals that fell off the flower and got scattered in the wind never to reattach again. Back in Kenya, he saw the independence movement brewing up.
Although born in Kenya, he sailed to India in a dhow during World War II, at the age of six. This book contains poems written in different parts of the world and can be enjoyed by any reader, especially those with political or historical perspective.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 11, 2015
• ISBN: 9781514403815

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 by Chimanlal Patel.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 09/09/2015

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Contents

2 4 3 3 4 Creekside Drive

48 Years Later

A Playboy

A Bottle In The Ditch

A Daughter’s Wedding

A Dissident Voice

A Judge and A Physician

A La Belle Etoile

A Pilgrimage

A Retrograde—A Pragmatist—A Progressive!

A Shovel and A Rake

A Son’s Apology By His Mother’s Death Bed

A Song To No Lyric

Ab Sit Invidia

After Today

An Evening In Fall

Ancestral Home

Antithesis

Apple Wish

Asters

At A National Park

Attitude Makes Altitude

Autumn Leaves

Awakening

Away Away To The Atlantic

Chappter B

Back To Mankind

Bank Deposit

Beginning and End

Behind The Stroller I Walk

Beneath The Tree

Between Two Worlds

Bird Sanctuary In Nakuru

Blood and Oil

Blow Out The Candles!

Blue Rain

Bubbles In A Glass Of Wine

Call From A Broker

Castles Of Helium

Changing Face Of Time

Color Of Money

Cry Not Child

Circle Of Water

Coming To Grips With The Law

Daybreak

Death Of A Policeman

Delightful Transformations

Did I Sing A Malhar?

Digging For Peace

Disproportional

Earth and The Crescent Moon

Eclogue

Elephant On My Chest

Empty Cigarette Pack At A Railway Station

Empty Park

Flowers For My Baby

Foggy Street

Fond Expectations

From A Hospital Bed

From Here To Infinity

From Darkness to Light

From Zero to Highway

From Poverty To Prosperity

Gambler

Gods After Men

Gandhi’s Dandi March, A Tribute In Retrospect

Gerrymandering

Gravity

Great Lake Michigan

Great Lake Superior

Heart Beats For Two

Highway Breakdown

Halted By A Voice

He Sang One For Me

Here and There

Indian American Talking To Oriental Indian

Is There An Escape?

Icicles

If Evolve I Must, Then How?

In A Temple

In Search Of A Niche

Independence Whispers

July Tuesday

Kilimanjaro—My Dream Mountain

Linear Life

Love and Friendship

Lunch Served With A Prejudice

Leaves

Logs and Waves

Living With Fear

L I F E!

Left With A Song In His Heart

Letter To God

Lollipop Party

Love Birds

Mumbai

Made In Japan

Man In A Straw Hat

Many Faces Of Humor

Men On The Run

Moon Over Midnight Snow

My Computer and The Monitor

Manners

No! Came The Answer

New Dawn Of Classics

Nobles Oblige

New Life

O Enemy Mine

Of Love Peace and Poetry

Of Political Leanings

Out and Alone

Overture To Spring

Pebbles and Rocks

Petals In The Wind

Plight Of Truth

Prayer

Plain Strophes

Peacock Dance

Reservations

Rise Of A Poet

Reaching Out For The Stars

R U N N E R

Rich and Educated

River Of Life

Rules Of The Stage

Searching Lost Leaves Of Family Tree

Sweet Lies

Swallow The Pride

Snow and The Plow

Summer Calls Us Out

Swans In A Lake

Symbiosis

S T O N E S

Sea and The Sea Bird

Security and Opportunity

Self-Expression

Shakespeare In The Bar

Silent Hills

Sleep Calls Us To Fall

Song Of Cicada

Song Of Ice

Starlings

Stopping By The Creekside

Steps To A Doctorate

Strawberry Quatrains For Nilima

Sunset Over Lake Victoria

Sighting an UFO

Search For Soul

Terrorist

This Town

Toast To A Would Be Poet

Thinking

The Turning Wheel

Two Girls Two Pennies and Snakes

The Legacy We Leave

Tulips Of Backyard

To America With Love

These Old Streets and The Pavers

The Colour Of Henna

The Enormous Room

The Fish and I

The Hills Of Farmington

The Hunt

The Rebel

The Lonely

The Lotus Pond

The Mirage Of Skyline

The Omega Man

The Other Self

Time To Be Quiet

To Human Fall Outs

To A Summa Cum Laude Graduate

To My Daughter On Turning Six

To My Wife

The Incredible Journey

U H U R U

Unknowns

United State Of Birds

Vanishing Paradise

Volenti Non Fit Injuria

Winds Of Winter

Winter Cardinals

Who Am I?

Words

Vanished Mall

Vanity

W A R

Walking The Long Road Bare Feet

We Can Dance Again

Wealth and Values

What Hue Fantasy

Winter In The Midwest

Woods and Skyscrapers

Writings On The Wall

Year Of The Apples

Yearnings

Young Daughter To Her Father

TO MY WIFE AND CHILDREN WHO HAVE BEEN MY INSPIRATION.

2 4 3 3 4 Creekside Drive

Drenched in raw daylight

Pupils gulp the memory-numbing rays

Falling on a door

That breathes in cool air

And exhales warm

Revealing frost-stained numbers 24334,

The last two, 34 reminding me of

How long I have lived here and

The transposed two in the middle, 43,

Of close to how old I was

When I, a first-generation immigrant

Came to this land

To realize his dreams!

Back then it was a forested block

Where pheasants, decked in their utmost

Colourful feathers roosted

And coyotes roamed at night sniffing the rabbit holes.

Nearby a silent creek,

Half seen through mica-shimmer,

Passed down a mossy culvert,

Percolated through rocks and pebbles

And lobbed up a blink of silver!

A brick and aluminium nest

Resounded with shrill voices of children,

Now grown and gone.

Lips touched lips

Like pen pressing paper

And two more live poems were composed,

One grew! Another still in the house!

Fire and police stations

Ensure safety and security.

Modern buildings house

Advanced kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high schools

For children to become

Competitive citizens of a complicated future world!

A hospital for the sick and elderly,

A hospice for urgent care,

Gas stations almost at every corner,

Banks, drug stores, and grocery stores,

All within easy reach!

Yards away, the looming pines and elms

Whisper: it’s a beautiful city and

Where the two streets, Creekside Drive and Lakeland meet

There lies a little house—24334!

48 Years Later

The train stood at the railway platform, silent and still,

Waiting for the guard’s signal

To chug her and leave for a new destination!

I had already boarded my compartment

Eager to see handkerchiefs waving good-bye!

Just then I saw a concerned farther,

His son trailing behind,

Rushing toward my compartment!

Soon both were at the door,

Boarding my compartment!

The father told me his son

Was also leaving for Bombay

And we could travel together!

Now, I had company and friendship!

I and the son left the same platform,

On the same train,

In the same compartment,

On the same day,

For the same destination!

While in Bombay,

I pursued a degree course in arts,

And he a degree course in architecture.

We stayed in the same hostel,

Dining in the same kitchen,

Going for evening walks,

Seeing movies together and

Getting closer and closer

Day by day!

Nights followed the days

And days followed the nights

And almost like a short dream

The four years went by!

I graduated and entered the university

And he continued with architecture!

We became close friends

But were not meant to be together for too long

And had to go our separate ways!

I went back to Kenya,

After finishing higher education

And since that time never saw him again,

Nor heard anything from him!

48 years passed!

I realized the dreams I had.

I was partly successful and even retired!

When reflecting on my past

I wondered sometimes

Where this friend was,

What might have happened to him!

And whether he was alive or

Years might have taken their toll on him!

If this world is a field,

Then we are seeds in it scattered far and wide!

Our spirits wander alone

Among symbols of its Everglades

Where unwilling to betray, all things

Come back to life from

Far off shores, echoes, colours, and sounds!

And so one day I received an e-mail

From a friend in England

That there was planned

A reunion of our ex-high-school students!

The itinerary was fixed and

Scheduled for nearly two weeks!

Among the several e-mails copied

To the ex-students was one

That caught my eye!

It had the name which looked familiar!

After a lot of speculation

I gathered enough courage to

E-mail him back asking

To forgive me if I had misidentified him

But to respond and confirm

If he was that same person

Who left the railway platform with me,

In the same train,

In the same compartment,

48 years ago!

And back came his confirmation,

That yes, he was indeed the same person

And since so many years had gone by

It was time for us to have a long chat!

He called me

And I recognized his voice,

As always friendly, humorous, and kind!

Oblivion hastened to plead with time,

But surrendered for lack of means

To hide our lifelong memories!

48 years melted away

Like it was yesterday!

We were friends again.

A Playboy

Touched by the magic of reverie,

The imagination of the carpenter boy,

Is all cherry blossoms!

Every day, during lunch break

He comes, to ease his sore tendons!

He is a wannabe!

Then again he is instantly transported

To a salacious beach, where marooned

He basks in the sun, warm sands, and breeze

Jocose with wine,

The ocean waves mellowing to stroke his feet,

With gentler ripples of vodka!

He sees those seductive images

Behind a magazine’s glossy pages,

Suddenly coming to life,

Not just one but all of them,

To fulfil his fantasies

With toasts of handheld goblets

And ready to submit

To his inexorable will

And curl up like millipedes

At the least touches of his desire!

A Bottle In The Ditch

Its contents,

Even though only partially drunk,

Must have still satisfied

The thirst of someone’s parching lips!

And yet, contrary to the common courtesies

Observed in the fair disposal

Of a smooth, sweet, transparent being,

It was flung! Flung,

Perhaps from the window

Of a fast-moving truck

Or some such thing in motion!

It must have missed

A crash upon a parapet,

A curb or a cobblestone

And then slipped away

To roll and roll

On a haggardly landscape

Without shattering to pieces,

Finally to settle in a ditch

Where it lay amidst dirt

And rot of leaves,

Satisfied completely that

Its quenching fluids were

At least partially consumed!

It lay like a spent, satiated aphrodisiac,

Expressly fulfilled that

The purpose of her very existence

Was fully consummated and sublimated!

It could have been

The pride of some host

At a party,

Or someone’s darling

On a highway,

As was obvious

From frequent rubs of lips,

For near libation sips,

At its sweet, moist mouth!

But now sadly abandoned,

It was fit only for trash!

The vague wind,

Blowing over her neck,

Couldn’t have missed

The sound of a low,

Moaning note, a sigh,

Like that of a cracked flute,

That even as a discard,

It had some worth