A Special Tribute to a Young Poet Oishi Chakraborty and her Poem: Stranded

To a Rising Poet

I am proud to present a young women poet Oishi Chakraborty won a school writing contest with her poem. I am grateful for her to allow Dancing Elephants Press to share her tallent with the world. Please see this amazing poem below, 
Gabriella


Stranded by Oishi Chakraborty

One hundred million miles apart,
Locked in its cold metal body.
The universe surrounding, embracing, bounding,
But all the light of the stars could not light up its cold, metallic heart.

During the day, it traveled through the endless dunes and yards,
The hot, dusty grains of sand grinding against its ever-turning wheels.
It went on forever, through the miserable heat that pounded and stung at his hard shell,
As it climbed, descended, on and on through the desolate wasteland that was Mars.

The night brought comfort, and a strange longing, a wonderous enthral,
The stars spilled over the galaxy, twisting and tumbling for eons before finally settling down.
And the dreamy, nirvanic hues of the world interlaced with them,
Until they were one, and they were all.

It gazed at the planet before him, its vibrant green swirling with its lush blue,
The world was arcadian, tranquil, serene.
But the longing inside it was great,
Hiraeth; to long for a home that was never yours to want, a home you never knew.

It remembered, when it was pieced together from sheer power and effort,
And trembling hands, and magnificent minds.
It remembered when it woke, the blinding, sterile, white walls and stale lights,
And it remembered the feeling of wonder, of belonging, of comfort.

It remembered being packaged away, meticulously wrapped with care and strong, supporting arms,
Left in a dark room with nothing to see, hear or touch.
But all it felt was excitement, as the walls shook and spun with tremendous movement,
For such caring hands could never cause harm.

Left there for days, with its coding buzzing through it like a broken melody, stuttering and wrecked,
And only the occasional muffled voices for company.
It could not help but wonder over its destination,
Accompanied only by the random gentle tremors, it slept.

It woke to a bright room, white and black decorating every surface and floor,
Colorful little bundles of wires poking out of every corner.
Objects swam around it, and it gazed at them all in awe,
For every little thing was something it had never seen before.

Little beings, dressed in bulging white suits, floated around it with sluggish flexion,
Their hands reaching up like little bugs to flitter around its wheels, head, torso.
And as it watched them, it felt a warmth bubbling up from inside like bottled sunlight,
And with a fluttering feeling, realized it was affection.

The doors soon opened to a strange land, stretching, gigantic and broad,
Wind wrapped itself around every living thing, heavy, all-encompassing, suffocating.
The dust traveled through the air in tidal waves, sweeping across the land like a tsunami,
Ravaging the mountainous dunes with the rage of an angered god.

It eagerly rolled forward, under the rushing Marigold skies,
And the storms of sand like trickling fire.
But as it heard a distant rumbling from behind and looked up,
The home it had come to know as its, had not followed it from the highs

It sprang forward, desperately trying to keep its home in sight,
Pushing and sliding and constant.
It never stopped, never ceased, never strayed,
As fast as it could, yet that wasn’t enough, to keep them from leaving it behind.

Day in and day out, it waited and waited,
Watching as the rays of the sun flow and sparkle like molten gold.
Traveling endlessly, digging endlessly, trapped in a wretched cycle,
Pushing past the gales, despite their heavy weight.

Years had passed and years will pass, it has long given up hope,
The storms may come, and the storms may go, and the stars may forever shine.
But it belongs here now, and can never leave,
Its desolate, confined, home.

One night it sat and realised with a start,
That this was where it was meant to be.
Kept from the beautiful and the living and the human,
One hundred million miles away, a universe apart.

This poem was originally published on Medium.