Another Morning

It’s another morning here, miles away
No, lifetimes away
Away from the evenings of shared smiles
As we straddled, haggled with the vendors

I see another row of neatly arranged boxes
No, cartons that carry food
Not just to exist, but survive
Survive the mundane conversations on right and left

Another sun here shines bright at my smile
No, a stifled sob, a swallowed grief
On the murder of throbbing life
Painted on the outside with hollow laughter and love

Yet another ride, high over the seas
No, over the highway of life
Only, I don’t fear the potholes of your tradition
Of love paid only through the needle of your sacred thread

It’s another evening here, dreams away
No, nightmares away
Away from the mornings of prayerful submission
To purified stone gods that putrefied the soul

I see another of row of bright yellow flowers
No, little love poems floating in my garden
Not just to cuddle, but live
Live to see the face of truth, face of pain, the face of God

Memories

As the years roll, when memories fade into oblivion, the only recourse that one can take to preserve the beautiful memories is putting them down in black and white…I miss…

The days I would hang on to the window hoping to see the smiling face of an uncommonly common man cycle toward my house every evening…

The days when the smartest woman in my world walk towards my home every evening and I running into her arms…

The days when I would simply give up my share of ‘yummy’ snacks to the little hairy thing born 5 years after me…

The days when I opened my new textbooks to smell them…

The days when daddy covered my notebooks with brown paper, and when they tore with the back of calendar sheets…

The days when I used to be thrilled to get ‘free’ labels to stick on my notebooks…

The days when I got excited about learning a new subject because history and geography came only after class 1 and botany, zoology, physics and chemistry only after class 6…

The days when I didn’t care about getting wet in the rains or getting leg sores…

The days when I would walk on the road and sing without people staring at me…and, then suddenly imagine myself to be riding the street hawk bike and speed past people like a tornado…

The days when I would feel an enormous sense of achievement and pride at being able to recite 10 bible verses…

The days when we’d go to early morning church services and wait for them for the whole year…

The days when an outing to the beach or fair was an annual event…

The days when playing was necessarily in the outdoors…

The days when being able to look into the well and spite into it when no one watched was a big secret…

The days when digging a pit with garden hovels was a big deal…

The days when watching wild honey being harvested from the trees in your house was common…