Love and Migration
By Sushant Shrestha
Before the last ice claimed the world
Our ancestors knew how to read the skies
When summer rains came in winter
And winter frost burned spring seeds
They knew it was time to move
The great river that fed their civilization
For ten thousand years
Began to whisper different songs
Its waters swelling beyond memory
Then vanishing into thirsty earth
Love found them in this time of change
She, daughter of those who read the stars
He, son of those who followed herds
Their hearts meeting as the world shifted
Like tectonic plates beneath their feet
The city walls rose higher each season
As if stone could hold back time
As if the hubris of human hands
Could tame the elements that danced
Beyond the reach of prayers
The elders spoke of patterns breaking
Of birds arriving too early
Of flowers blooming out of season
Of fish swimming in strange waters
Of stars that seemed to drift from their homes
Yet they danced in moonlit courtyards
Planning futures in a world
That was already becoming a memory
Their love like water finding
New paths through ancient stone
When the great waters finally came
It wasn't rage but transformation
Teaching them that survival
Sometimes means leaving everything
Except what lives in heart
They weren't the first to migrate
Following the paths of stars
Seeking lands where seasons
Still remembered their old rhythms
Where new rivers welcomed wanderers
Now watching our own waters rise
I think of them, those ancestors
Who loved and left and lived again
Who knew that civilization
Is what we carry in our souls
Some truths flow through bloodlines
Like rivers underground:
That home is where we make it
That love endures through change
That wisdom means knowing when to leave
Time moves like water
Breaking what won't bend
But hearts that flow like rivers
Find paths through any end
Carrying seeds of tomorrow
In the end, it's always this:
Two lovers hand in hand
Leading their people forward
Through changes in the land
Towards horizons yet unknown