First Flight
The plane races along the runway
like a blue-eyed stag bounding step by step,
its beak raised, wings unfurled,
rising straight into the sky.
Through the window—
high-rises, trees, roads,
shrinking into toy-like shapes,
fields spreading like flat plates,
ponds boxed into tiny squares,
sheep and goats no bigger than ants.
The earth recedes behind
as the aircraft tilts its wings
to take a sudden turn—
just as we stray off a path
onto some slanting trail,
towards Fork, towards trail.
At thirty-three thousand feet
I peer downward into the haze:
black mist hides winding threads,
surely they are rivers,
holding in their flow
the innocence of our hearts.
Clouds appear—
flower-clusters, white, azure,
soft as carded cotton;
hills draped in blue veils of mist,
summits locked in embrace with drifting vapors,
and far beyond—
snow-mountains, ascetic, still,
their serenity like sages in meditation.
Overhead stretch white canopies of cloud,
and when the plane strikes them
its wings glisten, damp,
as if even the passengers’ souls
had been washed in a secret rain.
Then—enter the air hostesses,
voices honeyed,
words spilling with laughter—
smiling lips, eyes alive,
whispering through the hush of turbines,
fragrant as fresh jasmine.
At night, midair,
I glance below—
scattered glimmers blink back,
like stars shining
from the depths of earth itself.
Descending into darkness,
the city spreads in long-shot frames:
a dazzle of lights,
shimmering, blinding,
pulling you into wonder,
but also planting
an unfamiliar dread,
like a lone wayfarer on a highway
who, hearing a vehicle thunder close behind,
instinctively edges
toward the safety of the curb.
Lakshmi Kant Mukul is an Indian writer, poet, critic, rural historian and serious scholar of folk culture, born on 08 January 1973 in a rural family in Maira village, District Rohtas, Bihar province, India. His literary journey began in 1993 as a Hindi poet and since then, he has published three books in Hindi and has been published in more than two dozen anthologies and hundreds of journals. Apart from Hindi, he also writes extensively in Urdu and Bhojpuri and also translates them into English himself. His two published poetry collections are- “Lal Chonch Wale Panchhi” and “Ghis Raha Hai Dhan Ka Katora”. His published book on rural and local history is- “Yatrion Ke Najriye Mein Shahabad”. He has received many awards for his work, including Aarambh Samman for his poetry writing in Hindi language, the prestigious Hindi Sevi Samman of Bihar Hindi Sahitya Sammelan. His English poetry has been published in many international anthologies and translated into many languages. The notable achievements of his literary career are – recognition as a farmer poet and expertise on the changes taking place in the rural environment in the global era. Having studied law, he has adopted the modern style of farming. postal address -LAKSHMI KANT MUKUL Village _ Maira, PO _ Saisar, SO _ Dhansoi, Buxar, Bihar [ INDIA] Mob.no._6202077236 Postcode – 802117 Email – kvimukul12111@gmail.com mob.no