The mango tree off the wall

     The mango tree off the wall

The mango tree off the wall

A story about, when our city was small

The kids would climb its large branches

like the birds of the nest set free

with their golden beaks relishing the mangoes,

Oh! The juicy fruit of the wonder tree

The passers-by were often mesmerized

The air around was so sweet

I fainted a hundred times,

From the music of the bird’s tweet

But, day by day the tree grew older

Perhaps the air was changing its colour

The fruit was no longer juicy

And hence caught up the ugly pallor

Sometimes I could hear the birds chirping

The tree would most often cry

The memories of the good old days

would make both of us wry

Again the tree was taken aback

when the wall was made to fall down

The old companion, the best friend

Now merely bricks for the industrialist’s crown

The wonder tree had lost its wonder

for the grown industrial city

merely branches and leaves

which the passers-by would pity

Then one day I woke up

The tree had vanished like a dream…….

Many others were fallen down

to carve out a city of dreams

The sky is polluted, still I can see

As a star the wonder tree gleams

Today, where the tree bloomed

is a large shopping mall,

quite happy and developed we are,

standing on the graves of

A million trees off the wall….