Yard duty (Telugu Original “Yard duty” by Dr K.Geeta)

Yard duty

English Traslation-V.Vijaya Kumar

Telugu Original-Dr K.Geeta

As if the locusts swarmed and perched

When the winds blew off

Children rush from all sides

Dashing the lawns of school

Only the thing is they’ve no tails

Nope, had lengthy ones in fact

That’s the reason why perhaps

They hung upside down to iron bars forever

This’s America

Where the hand sticks tabooed

Mid-noon patrolling

A part of Job

Though the monkeys somersault and hop

We need a soft respectul voice even to warn

False words of praise

Lips that smile for everything

A little kid after all

Looks up innocent as if at sky

Watch at you hurling riddles plenty

Storms your brains out

A second standard naughty kid

Matured in sneaking away from your surveillance

A fifth standard hard nutshell

Looks at you careless 

As if ready to fight the world

Though naughty

The fingers hung on the bars are delicate flowers

The treasures hidden in their naughty eyes are beautiful childhoods 

Running hither and thither

When they come with a sob

With a broken wrist

Or with a swollen knee

My heart stops and throbs

At once reminds me 

The motherly warmth borne on my shoulders

My heart weighs the pains

Never allowed to sprout in tender hearts

Whistle blown minute by minute behind

Ends in counting children two hundred

There’s a sighing sympathetic heart behind

Kid slips down upside down on a slider

Child crying by the bite 

Not killing the creeping ant on the nape

A brave stood on the bar without support-

A rocky one dashes at once

And flees away dusting-

It’s an exquisite world

Mingled with children

Danced inside in hilarious joy

In the mid-noon patrolling

Except the call ‘Yard Duty’ 

Nothing heard

Wherever you see in 

Anonymous environment

The hails of locusts

Become the sprinkles of butterflies

Flutter and perch

On the premises of the school

Like the marvelous six-winged snow flowers

Hovering round and round in rapt

Appear in sky dazzling

*****