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RAGHAV BAL MARDHEKAR
Poems
Jan 2021
A CHILD'S HAND
In the yard there is a tree
It's been there quite a while
I look at it today
With a quiet, wistful smile.
From years long gone a vision
Of a child looking around
I see – as he surveyed
Brown, beaten, barren ground.
He knew without quite knowing
That something was not right
They'd said the earth should hold
Full blooms and flowers bright.
Despondent, he saw no blade
Of grass – no copse, no bush.
Not just a leaf to wipe
The sudden tearful rush.
With grubby hand he rubbed
Tired eyes that woeful weep
And turned from whence he came
To the silent house to sleep.
But first upon the table
He saw what had been left
As mothers are wont to do
A mango for him was kept.
With practised ease he clambered
Onto to the nearest chair
And the pensive fruit he ******
Leaving stains on face and hair.
Then something he'd heard
Came to mind with startling light
He look'd through the window
His eyes were shining bright.
He toddled back outside
And saw the distant wall
His gaze fixed upon it
Threw the kernel like a ball.
Then came in back to sleep
From the yard with barren earth
And when he woke he heard
The sounds of talk and mirth.
And as is a child's way
He forgot what he had cast,
In the pleasures of today
Past deeds are often past.
The seasons came and went
The child to manhood grown
He'd left his parent's house
For a place he called his own.
With the passing of the years
Memory too lost its recall
Though on chance he told the tale
Of the kernel by the wall
One day 'cross oceans distant
A man came back to claim
The child of the child returned
To the house that bore his name
And in the yard he saw
No patch of empty ground
But a giant mango tree
Fruit flies flitting around.
And in its shade he stood
Amidst flowers of different hue
And tried in vain to see
The wall his father knew.
In the lush green of the yard
The distant wall was hidden
And with no conscious thought
Came a sight quite unbidden..
On the spot where he stood
He saw again that child
And reverent bent to taste
Fruit lying in splendour wild.
The grey upon his shoulders
Gnarled bark of the tree
The wisdom of the years
Was there for him to see.
He knew it was the land
And the rain in season due
That gave the tree and yard
Its colours and its hue.
But all that he could sense
Was a child trying to see
Bright flowers and green grass
Where they'd said they should be.
Like him perhaps there'll be
A woeful child who'll stand
And plant another tree
With the kernel in his hand.
From simple deeds are born
Life's flavours and its treats
From little children's longings
Barren nature too retreats
When he, his child, and children
Are gone, the tree will stand
A symbol of the miracle
Wrought by a child's hand.
Written by
RAGHAV BAL MARDHEKAR
70/M/INDIA
(70/M/INDIA)
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