Lonely duck

Afternoon blues tore up the rain clouds

To showcase the sky with its glowing arms

Sunshine put brakes on the erratic rain

Water logged roads remained lazy

To dry up in rhythm with the sun

Potholes in dilapidated roads

Shined as if its jewels

And it resembled ponds

A duck aloof from its herd

Amidst a deserted city street

Found the luxury to have a bath

Peacefully in one of the potholes

Swaying its wings, taking time at will

Without being bothered about anything

The pedestrians or odd vehicles passing by

It enjoyed the bath relying on natural instincts

Though, it had never seen its real habitat once

The fields and lakes where its predecessors

Swam the life at the pace of virgin nature

Born in hatcheries, it was walked through

The miles by the vendors from camps to camps

Without seeing any water stream all along the way

For it, roads are equivalent to the idyllic waterways

Forced to run around a plot filled with coconut trees

Lonely duck made friendships with the people and dogs

Strangers and vehicles don’t scare it anymore

As the parking lot brings countless of them everyday

It has buckets of water to gulp down its thirst

Occasional rains quench its innate urge to drench

 Though, swimming is impossible in its new home

There are no fishes and worms to hunt down

It’s Fed with the grains and human food

It is caged in the wave of space crunch

In the allay of city life It never wished

As it couldn’t fly away back to the nature