Pramod Rastogi is an Emeritus Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. He is a Member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences. He is the 2014 recipient of the SPIE Dennis Gabor Award. He was Editor-in-chief of the international journal Optics and Lasers in Engineering (Elsevier, London) between 1999 and 2019. He is also a guest Professor at the IIT Gandhinagar, India.
As the sun neared the horizon
And the evening cast its shadow
Gleaming orange on the boat,
It was time to return to shore.
The fisherman withdrew the net
He had cast into the sea.
Joyous, as good was the catch,
His whistling sound rippled,
Penetrated deep into the sea.
The music rebounded across the waves
To announce that a truce was declared.
Long live the king sun’s decline.
Let the vigil of the night be long.
The day had taken a heavy toll,
As captives had been many.
The fishes could now breathe
And repose their heartbeats
Before going on a feasting spree.
The fishes had become thirsty
While on their run
To escape the jaws of the nets.
They wined on the salt
To mourn the ones they had lost
As the boat slowly neared shore.
The clouds sniffed the falling night
And the fisherman broke
Into a folklore song, in fulsome praise
Of his love’s bewitching beauty
As she waited to embrace him on his return
Clasping the ocean in her heart.
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Poetry in this post: © Pramod Rastogi
Published with the permission of Pramod Rastogi