The night has a thousand voices

The night has a thousand voices
Rising in the dusk
Falling by dawn
The sound of children playing their last games
The thwack of the cricket bat in the last over
The call of the last ferry
The rhythms of the last rush hour train
That rushes on with an electric flash
The lowing cows driven home
The screeching birds that settle in their nests

The azzan calls the faithful,
The church bells toll the vespers
The conch shell pronounces the sacred promise
By a an earthen lamp in Tulsi's courtyard

The moon courses over the starlit night
Lonely in her journey,
Moving to the celestial music that she hears
And calls the tides to hear
Upon the sleeping shores

The wind moans, a door slams
Far in the forest rises a scream
Of one that has perished
So that another may live
From the waste land of the burning ghat
Rises the mourning call of Kali's jackals

I lie quietly as the owl hoots,
The night is waning-
With dawns arrival will wake the first crows
Loudly will the cuckoo call- kuhu kuhu kuhu kuhu
The fan whirs
And I?
I listen to your soft breathing
As you sleep.