We sat together on dusty doorsteps,
Knotted in curls of thousand thoughts.
Seeping in nostalgia about;
Dad’s lanky shadow trudging beside my petite steps,
Mom’s fretting cloaked in muffled prayers,
Fattened jollity on sailing my wishy-washy paper boats in rainy puddles,
Having my eyes set on roadside candies trapped in flamboyant boxes,
Swelled gummy smiles on sharing Apple sandwiches at lunch breaks,
Glittered ‘victoria’ on festooning my walls with Tweety and Winnie-the-Pooh,
Jumpy glimpses on bare street to hear clinkings of ice cream truck,
Tussles and battles on a gripping game of Monopoly,
Scrambles and races in hulking parkland with best of my buddies,
Ecstasy on receiving a brand new Faber Castell paint box,
Gawking and flushed cheeks on listening my adored singer,
Zeal breezing a day before arriving in dazzling fun fairs.
But today,
Dad’s lanky shadow has become frail and is far away,
Mom’s frettings have turned into distant strains,
Moist paper boats are dwindling on sun baked mud,
There is none on the roadside to hanker after bundles of beguiling candies,
Lunch breaks are over and Apple sandwiches have froze with no gummy smiles,
Tweety and Winnie-the-Pooh are wearing off the blemish walls in my old room,
The street is still bare only those clinkings of ice cream truck has broken off,
Battles are stifling and tints in tarnished paint box have parched,
My best of buddies are sauntering on newborn paths to find their left fragments,
My adored singer is biding an unsung life in tranquil wilds,
Those once dazzling fun fairs have hanged a ‘Closed’ sign on their iron gates,
And just like straying stars, we all were now characters of a forgotten movie.
My childhood shuffled gingerly,
I could sense its end.
So, I gathered all its fretful mewls,
Writing ‘a parting note’ on its final heartbeats,
TO MY ELFIN CHILDHOOD:
“We skimmed for too long in humming waves,
It’s time to set our feet on Mustard shores,
And get ourselves going on offbeat ways.
But like those echoing peachy sunsets,
You shall never be a swan song in me,
For you shall always come back with luminous rainbows in glee.
In another life, we will still meet.
Till then let earth rest light on thee,
And I have to be in anonymous towns to complete,
For I am yet to clasp the snow drops and breathe.“
