Yuyutsu Sharma | Rain

Rain

The rain comes

in silence

thought of her arrival

in a parrot-green glade

(her) thigh-thick cataract

tumbling down

her nimble rose-feet

coming

over mossy

green rocks

jingling

to smash

my tiny heart    

the drip    the drip

behind lush

green hill ranges

Can’t you hear it?

The shrub-ridden goats

rushing back home

the cows lowing after

and the crone,

the fragile-lunged

spirit of the hills,

following

lashing the cattle

with a green twig

in a wild hurry

but lagging behind

a cloud’s shadow

on stone-strewn hill path.

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Recipient of fellowships and grants from The Rockefeller Foundation, Ireland Literature Exchange, and The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature, among others, Yuyutsu Ram Dass Sharma is a distinguished poet and translator. He edits Pratik: A Magazine of Contemporary Writing and contributes literary columns to Nepal’s leading daily, The Himalayan Times. Nine poetry collections have been published including his most recent A Blizzard in My Bones: New York Poems and Quaking Cantos: Nepal Earthquake Poems, both from Nirala Publications, New Delhi, India. Frequently invited to read, lecture, and lead creative writing workshops by various universities in North America and Europe, he travels half the year. At home in Nepal, he enjoys trekking in the Himalayas.