At three in the afternoon
They arrived
And when they did
None ever imagined
Cranes could come like that

One after the other
They came gradually
Flight after flight
They spread slowly
Over the entire sky
By degrees the whole city
Filled with their crackles

They hovered over the city
For long over the roofs
Over the porches
From their wings there
Kept falling the smell
Of dry paddy leaves

Suddenly
An old woman noticed them
Certainly they have come
In search of water
She felt

She went to the kitchen
Brought a bowl of water
And kept in the courtyard

But the cranes
Kept hovering over the city
They saw not the woman
Nor the bowl of water

Cranes had no idea
Down below people live
And they call them cranes
They had come from distant
Lands, searching for water

They were bound to distant
Lands, searching for water