The first time I sang a love song

The first time I sang a love song

Was not in that typical setting of a full moon night

With flowy Victorian gowns and black bows

Dominating a scene by the lake

Just a normal day out in the woods

When the dried leaves crunched with my steps

And I knew no one was there

To hear me croon a futile song

Learnt from an orphaned child

Who knew nothing more than the song

To sing to his little siblings when

He had to make them sleep without a meal

And as I sat pitching high and low

I could feel my heart crave

For something more than just the abstraction

Of a futile song escaping my mouth

Me, my Mum, Spinach and the beggar

“No mama, please, not spinach! This will be the fifth time in a month that we’ll be eating spinach.” This was me; yesterday evening at the Grocer’s in my neighborhood market. My mother did not say anything. Nor did she buy any other vegetable. We walked ahead talking as usual about traffic in particular. A few meters ahead, when we stopped at the fruit corner, a rickshaw came to an abrupt hall in front of me. The occupant, a lady kept sitting and while I kept wondering why did it stop so abruptly, I saw the lady looking at a beggar limping down the road. When he reached the rickshaw, she asked him “Do you want some food?” The beggar nodded. The lady without as much getting down the seat threw a bag of ‘mixed leftovers’ of a feast at him. He sat on the pavement and began eating hungrily as if he hadn’t seen food for days. I had never seen a person eat as hungrily and naturally, it touched me. When mama was finished with the shopping, she asked me “Why were you continuously looking at that beggar?” “He was very hungry” I said in a low tone and mama didn’t say anything more. On our way back home, I stopped at the Grocer’s “Won’t you buy spinach Mom?” My mum smiled.

Today the same spinach cooked by my mum tasted so different! I’ve never loved spinach as much! It felt as if I was enjoying a rare delicacy!

“I cried because I had no shoes. Till I saw a man with no feet” I’d always known this as a quote but, it is no longer just a quote for me.

Pantoum of the Night

As the night creeps in, breath by breath

The sky sighs and meets the sea

Clusters of an orangish glow

Cascading into the watery luster

The sky sighs and meets the sea

Singing a thousand wordless tunes

Cascading into the watery luster

The silver of the moonlight

Singing a thousand wordless tunes

Unfolding the darkness like a song

The silver of the moonlight

Awakens a thousand dreams

Unfolding the darkness like a song

With words lost into the waves

Awakening a thousand dreams

The night creeps in, breath by breath.