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Neem Tree
Some strip the bark
and boil it.
Some rip off the
leaves and grind them.
While others fry them
up in hot oil.
To smear it on itches
and skin rashes,
Infallible in skin
problems.
Many also eat the
young leaves
Sometimes even raw,
Or fried with egg
plant.
Very helpful for the
liver.
So many break off the
young branches and chew them – keeps teeth healthy.
The traditional
healer cannot praise it enough.
One growing next to
the house makes the wise happy.
They say, the breeze
blowing through a Neem is good, let it stay, do not cut it;
So no one cuts it,
but no one looks after it either.
Rubbish collects
about its base.
Someone paved around
it – another kind of rubble at its feet.
Suddenly one day, a
new person arrives
They gaze upon the tree
with wonder, they do not strip off the bark, rip off the leaves
Or break the branches;
they just gaze!
They say, ‘Lovely,
how lovely the leaves, how beautiful!
And the clusters of flowers!
Like stars that flicker in a sea of green!’
After looking on for
a while, the person goes away.
Not a healer of the
body, but of the mind – a poet.
The Neem tree wanted
to go with him; but in vain, for its roots were deep.
It remained in the
pile of rubbish behind the house.
The same as the
domesticated, docile daughter-in-law next door….
