Celestial Bridge

I never saw a rainbow
as big, broad and high
as here in the wilderness of exile
across the earth and sky;
a seven-hued bridge
over Pirpanjal and Trikuta
across the Tawi to the sacred Vitasta,
a superhighway on the biosphere
leading from exile here
to the motherland over there.

While the rampaging militants
that have taken over the valley
are busy burning bridges
and the bridges between people
have fallen apart in a breach of faith,
this rainbow here,
this celestial bridge,
beyond the reach of the predator,
is a divine intercession,
and a providential link
between man and man,
between the distanced and estranged,
between home and exile.