Chennai Eternal Poem by Umasree Raghunath

Where land meets sea in a humid embrace
Chennai stands firm with an ageless grace
Once Madras born of colonial might
Now a city's soul reborn in light
It sings in temples and cinema halls
In jasmine air and Marina's calls
A refuge to some who flee the storm
To others the tempest itself in form
Sarees sway in Ranganathan street
A chaos where daily lives still meet
It nurtures the lost with quiet care
Yet roars with rage in protest flare
A lullaby sung by an auto's hum
And the metro's heart now learning to drum
Idli and filter kaapi at dawn
A comfort found long after it's gone
The salt of sweat the tang of brine
Mark every step on Mount Road's spine
The sky breaks open in monsoon pain
Yet joy is born in each flooded lane
A whisper of past in Fort's proud stone
A future coded in tech zones grown
The smell of books on Moore Market shelves
Or bytes that speak in startup selves
It shelters saints and rebels alike
From Marina march to Kilpauk strike
Beaches cradle lovers and loss
Kites and grief in parallel gloss
Time sleeps in Mylapore's slow breath
While Velachery races ahead of death
It frightens with its ceaseless pace
Yet grants the stranger a quiet place
From slums where survival writes its script
To mansions with histories tightly gripped
There's pain in the alleys of Parry's soul
And hope where young dreams dare to stroll
Chennai is heat that holds your skin
And memories you carry deep within
A map of moments drawn in sand
A city that vanishes yet still stands