Hue of Mind (Poem)

Am I lured, for the tandem seconds I bide?

So dark and grave,

Is the shadow, I left behind?

Do the tears I shed,

Worth empty stares from the street I pace?

From all these having said,

_"Some food you must have"_;

my mom coddled.

To stave off my caress mom with no hesitation did I push, a morsel of toast and omelette into my mouth of swollen taste buds.

A mouth all swelled up, stale did the bread seem.

Brittle were my bones,

Didn't I fear, for will it crumble?

Couldn't consume more than a bite,

Started it, to crack my appetite.

Dropped my gaze did I to that moldy newspaper printed 2 years ago,

With heavy sobs that tore from my throat, I attempted to read the very headline-

_" Walnut stuck in throat led to the death of a 3-yr-old girl"_

Slumped I, my rigid body to the couch,

Thought of those very scenes of lamentation.

I kept wailing over her tiara,

I held myself responsible for her death.

"I could've rescued her,

She would've been here with me."

I folded her trundle-bed, her absence started killing me over and over.

How long this way will I bide?

Have I not got anyone beside?

Perhaps no, until my very little one's gone.

Death was, for me, no more a Death,

But a pace of time undergoing deterioration.

- Afrah Pandikkadan (S1A)

[AIFEST - All-India category-2 : 3rd place winning poem]

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