I lay unconscious
For a fortnight
Throwing my entrails out
On a forlorn hospital bed
Down with enteric fever
All that I remember hearing then
Through slits
Of my sinking awareness
Were the North East January winds
Violently rustling the banyan trees
I never feared you then
You didn’t matter to me
For I was primitive
In my still nascent innocence
I survived and grew up
Later to be poetic
I was worried
I would lose the beauty
Of the east winds
And the Monsoon rains
If you pounced on me unwawares
I spent sleepless nights
Rolled on my bed
Feared you were there
In the dark
Outside my hut
With a noose
To squeeze my fragile neck
Idiot I was
Till I knew
That I knew you
That you were always with me
Nibbling at my corpus
That isn’t really me
Like a rat
Inching towards its last savored gulp
What does it matter rat
You have always been there
To feast on what I mistook I was?
You always needed me
To acknowledge and validate
Your own flimsy existence
A silly mongrel you are
Tamed to the very hilt
The next time your food is ready
I will call you, till then wait
My backyard is your home
As it is
For the mango tree
Mewing cat, the evening sky
I will ever remain
Lighting your eccentricities
And absurdities
To the ignorant world around me
Wait and pant
That is all
What you are supposed to do
Till I have another errand for you
Leave a Reply