The Roots in Heaven Sushama Karnik

The Roots in Heaven

When a profound sleep
comes unbesought
and the very silence falls asleep,
that is the time when the smile fades
and the sadness speaks,
the veil falls away
and the voice, like an anguished child,
wails without a word.
The emptiness scatters the soul;
the shadows from the void
arise to hold
the drifting oar.
An endless march of sounds and shades,
each footfall in the dark is on the splinters of dreams lying in the way,
and I bleed.
The nights pass by and the days fade,
and the mind goes on seeing ceaselessly,
the dreams of blossoms
in the days of fall.
Certain links there are
which form and grow
with no light of reason
on their roots to show;
visible only when the tree has grown
with the roots in heaven
and the branches below.