Saturday, 1 November 2025

Poetry 2025 Longlist, Srijani Roy

 The Felling of a Sycamore Tree 


Long ago there was a President

who ruled the country with iron fist.


There also lived a young man.

He was a student at the university.

There was nothing special about this human

other than his love for a Sycamore tree.


The tree was his life as legends say.

He read under its shade

and scribbled poetry.

There was a silent bond of kindred

between the young man and the sycamore tree.


One day, they were told,

The president of the country

was to visit the university.

Over the days trees were felled

to make road for his grand entry.

The last one to fall was the Sycamore tree.


The young man was there.

He didn’t cry nor swear.

But onlookers say

His eyes glistened with a drop of tear.


He vanished for days.

No one knew what he did or where he stayed.

But his poems appeared on their screen

calling for an end to the autocratic regime.

Few laughed but more were moved,

As the poems enraged and the poems soothed.


The young man appeared on the D-Day

when the President was on stage.

He hurled the poems in the air

and the crowds raged

But before he could disappear

The President’s guards tied him down

They dragged him to no one knows where

and he was never found.


But the rebellion spread, a revolution was born

and the President was finally overthrown.


Many years have passed since then

Presidents came and went.

But we still remember

People like you and me.

How a mighty empire crumbled

at the felling of a Sycamore tree.

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