By Santosh Bakaya
Memory etchings of a bygone clime
Engraved like graffiti in my heart
Spouting a silent rhyme
That serene scene not keen to depart
That bubbly bonhomie
Now entrapped in barks of the pine tree
Near the snug cottage
Of a happy time
When winter carols tuneless songs
And a stifling summer suffocates
My heart longs
For that smile of the child
Warming my heart
On that cold day in December
Like an angel he sprang from the boulders
A lamb perched on his shoulders!
He bewitched me by his cherubic looks
As I sat near the Lidder looking at rooks
His smile that I remember
Shines like an ember
Of precarious peace and hope
Perched like an acrobat on a rope
The child smiles
Through a patina of grime
Scoffing at the ravages of time
Delineating a new love paradigm
He is a Van Gogh painting come to life
Timelessly he sparkles above hate and strife
Springing from behind boulders
A lamb perched on his shoulders
A novelist-poet, Dr Santosh Bakaya stays in Jaipur with her husband, Lalit Magazine and college going daughter. She is from Kashmir. She recently won the Reuel International award for her long poem “OH HARK!” which is now part of “THE SIGNIFICANT ANTHOLOGY”.
Her e-book: FLIGHTS FROM MY TERRACE in Smashwords has been critically acclaimed and recently Vitasta Publishers released her new ‘poetic biography’ of M K Ghandhi: “BALLAD OF BAPU”.