It is not yet time for “Good Bye”
When I have not fully loved and lived
With every fiber of my being stretched,
Thinking every thought
And feeling every emotion to the utmost.
Let me not step into the wintry days
Sans life and sans color.
I yearned my heart to leap
At every glance, at every touch;
I craved the glow of love
To envelope me snuggly
To feel the warmth of love.
“Wait”, my heart spoke
And I held my breath
Before the death knell of “Good Bye”
Drowned me for ever.
Latticed flakes, feather light,
Floated like eider down
And lightly lingered
Upon eyelashes aflutter,
Cheeks aglow and nosetips in freeze.
Amid the snowy florets
In the winter hush,
My footfalls muffled
In the downy pavement.
I walked with upturned face
Where crystalline blooms,
In whispering touches,
Winked and vanished.
In candy sugar ice,
The twigs and branches
Gleamed in fairy luster
In the charmed wood
Where the pathway crossed.
Winter’s brittle splendor,
In ethereal sheen,
Wafted me to enchantment
Aloft myriad graces
Into intimate magic, and,
Alas, a world of transience.
The viper strikes
With venomous loneliness-
The bane of old age.
Summer slipped in
Taking stealthy steps
Lagging behind nippy May
Which cool-caressed cheeks.
The sun began to linger
Making days longer
And humid air
Pearl-beaded foreheads.
The light-washed scenes
Brought warm-colored thoughts!
What a joy it was
To watch summer girls
Waltzing in
To parks and picnics
In their floral-print dresses,
Wafting their flutter sleeves,
And dripping sunlight in their smiles.
The ubiquitous bird-watchers
Stood by gleefully,
Sighing in deep satisfaction
While the elderly reminisced
About the bygone summers
Of spent youths.
Oh, my heart
Was so fragile
And brittle like crystal.
So easily broken
By an unkind word
Or cruel gesture
That could scratch
Or even crack!
I hid them.
And wore Teflon
For the world to see
An unscathed mien.
But deep within my tender heart
I felt the wounds.
Yet, covered they were
From probing eyes
Concealing all the hurts
Showing to all the world
An unbroken facade.
Time, in its inimical fashion,
Passed unhindered,
Not seeking palliatives.
The heart lived-
Albeit stitched and patched-
Unlike the crystal
Surviving as a whole
Surviving sturdily
The buffets of time,
The thorns of relations
And the cruel ills of society,
Declaring to the world,
“I have lived
And have grown stout”.
Cold bit my fingers
In the flurry
As I scraped ice
From windshield
And windows.
I blew hot breath
Into frozen fingers.
But it was pain
That pricked through tips
As blood defrosted
And began to flow
As feelings came alive
Bringing back memories
Of excruciating life
As blood awakened
And channelled through limbs.
The summer was balmy
And the air hung like Indian muslin.
A somnolent lethargy overtook me
As I lay in my hammock
By the pond, hidden among weeds,
Whose surface shone speckled
By water’s sheen breaking through pondscum.
A sudden stir in the air above pond,
A glimmer of irridiscent colors!
A dragonfly was flitting upon the pond,
Transparent wings flashing colors
From metallic patches-
Red, brown, yellow, blue .
Helicoptering above, it lit
Upon a lily pad, compound eyes swirling
Its encircling globular vision searching,
A predator seeking prey.
But Fate decrees its tragic moments.
The unwary dragonfly foolishly forgot
The predator in the shallows.
A sudden splash and whiplike motion!
A bullfrog leapt up mouth opening,
Flicking its long and sticky tongue out,
And captured the hapless dragonfly.
Thus marked the end
Of a predator by a predator.
We held hands and promised
To grow old together,
To laugh at our follies,
And to cry at our mistakes.
It was the promise of a dream
To wait together for the sunset,
A dream that was shattered
When one hand had to let go.
Bubbles shimmer
And my life glints;
Some float in quickly,
Wink and blink in a trice.
Plain and nondescript,
They are the dull routines
Of my mundane life.
Some sparkle green
And waft towards me
As time and seasons passed.
My heart leaps up
At sprightly Springs
In refreshing hues,
At lush Summers
Fully blossomed,
At mellow Autumns
In ripe fruition,
And at pristine Winters,
At once brilliant and gray,
Burying memories.
But my soul opens
At the rainbow-splattered bubbles
Dancing towards me.
I try to snatch these-
My hopes and dreams.
But many dart away
Out of my grasp!
But I am rife with hope
To snare and trap
My rainbow bubbles
Of fulfilled dreams.
Is she under the porch?
Is she over the arch?
Is she on the oak branch?
Is she within their reach?
Three children wondered
And worriedly searched.
They froze in the wind chill
And found refuge at Grandma’s.
When unfreezing their limbs in homey warmth,
They reflected on the saucy canine
Who hated any sneaky feline,
Who, mostly, stayed within borders,
And who obeyed every order.
An unlatched door!
Out Sasha escaped to freedom.
The three were befuddled.
They tried to give chase and follow
Only to lose her in a hollow.
Dejected and losing patience,
The abashed children returned home
To find the sassy dog in the mud room
Wagging her tail in satisfaction.
RosyView 