Dawn shook up and woke
With the sweetness of birdsong;
Crystalline spray of cataracts
Stippled the verdure on the banks
Where Malini sparkled in mischief
And washed the footpath
Of golden grains of sand
Mingling with polished pebbles.
Shakunthala yawned and stretched
And saw, with unexpected lassitude,
The morning sun peeking
Through the thatched eaves.
There was something in the air,
She mused without concern
And whiled away lazy moments
In anticipation
Of another humdrum day
In the hermitage.
At the threshold, she stood
At life’s ephemeral moment
Like an unworn gem,
Like an unkissed bloom,
Like an unplucked new leaf,
Like untasted honey.
And unsung melody.
Though nubile, innocent she was,
Incognizant of the wiles
And worldly wickedness,
Living sheltered among sages!
The breeze was beckoning
And friends were waiting;
Down the footpath, she walked
Towards Malini’s shore,
Her heels digging deep into the sand
Marking her trodden path.
Some tremor tugged at her conscious self,
But she turned without thought.
She lifted her foot into her palm
As if to check for some unknown thorn!
What devious moment prompted her
To look towards the cluster of saplings?
Watching her with intent gaze
Was a resplendent creature,
A predator, albeit a king.
Facing that knowing look
Was the undoing of innocence.
There was no thorn in the sole,
But the disturbing tremor continued.
Two pairs of eyes met
In time old mating
And Shakunthala was lost
To her hermitage irrevocably
When she drowned in the eyes
Of the worldly wise monarch.
