Water boils in the steel pot
held over the blue flame;
bubbles rising from the bottom
as small as mustard seeds
move up in a tornado
growing as they swirl to surface
big and strong as life
when they burst with a plop.
Motor draws water from the well
sends it to the overhead tank;
water running up the pipe
singing songs of a forest stream
rushes out into the tank
like a snake out of the sack.
Water high under the summer sky
awaiting orders to flow down.
Poet’s Bio:
Prathap Kamath teaches English literature at University of Kerala. He has published a collection of poems Ekalavya: a book of poems.His is poems have appeared in several journals of national and international repute and anthologies namely The Poetry of War and Peace and Words on the Winds of Change, both published from Canada by www.blurb.com. He is one among the 150 poets featured in The Dance of the Peacock-An Anthology of English Poetry from India published by Hidden Brook Press, Canada. He is also a short story writer. Blood Rain and Other Stories (Delhi: LiFi, 2014) is his first collection of stories in English.
Illustration by Alan Van Every (Featured image on the front page)