My sleep got disturbed, thrice that day;
I could not sleep tho’ a holiday;
My mind was filled with thoughts unclear;
I got up in the morn, much earlier;
‘Twas India’s Independence Day!

Thunder, lightning filled the night’s Sky;
The day much overcast did fly;
The Rain was just a drizzle that day;
Wetted the ground of mud and clay;
‘Twas 15th of August, a rainy day.

The pea-birds howled and groaned that night;
The Rain made them shiver with fright;
Though ten, it looked like six in the morn;
The Sun behind the clouds had gone;
The Sky ground-glass remained that day.

The leaky tap-waters that fell,
Raised wavelets, ploppy-toned and swell;
Rain-drops on cables looked like pearls;
Dropped, formed again, enticing souls;
It looked it would rain long that day.

Rain-drops hanging beneath fir-twigs;
Glittered in the scarce light like figs;
The whole tree was aglow, alit;
A thing of beauty, don’t miss it!
The Sky looked like a barred-white board!

A frail, brown-skinned, bony human,
With sack on head, bent-back, he ran!
The Indian was agonizing!
Tho’ people keep sermonizing!
Fifty years after Independence!
What good was done for the common-man?

Dr John Celes

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/15th-august-1998-in-india/