A Tribute To Lost Things

A Tribute To Lost Things

Lost among the menhirs of my thoughts
In my bubbly class, I sit;
Aloof and plastic, my soul’s lamp unlit.
History’s battles wreak havoc;
Trying to engage my mind,
Smith an’ Marshall debate answers they can’t find.
In a lone corner Shakespeare sits and whines.
And social dynamics tries to leap off the text’s lines.
Meanwhile in me,
The commitment to learn smuggles into
The blanket of nonchalance.
Again, I recollect the humming of a ring tone,
The wave of a friend from across the bench
Torn between the mystery behind the ring
And the old familiar smile of my comrade,
I look away and fondle the phone,
And hushes it catering to its immediate need
A zephyr passes and I see
The commitment to friendship lies
Crumbled against my heart’s nook.
I caress the bus-ticket as I stand among my peers
And glare at a haggled damsel who stood on my toe
With disgust and contempt sheer!
The body odour of Arabian Sea’s queen
Into my senses do sting
I try to drown it with a breath freshener sort of thing
Its blue-green cover out of window I fling!
Along with it my commitment to
The society and nature rides out on a breeze’s wing.
At home, from boo-boo soaps and serials
My grand mom seeks 
Sporadic intervals of telephonic charts
Pa and Ma comes with ‘packetized’ affections
Plunges into the news and the net
She, the commitment to love walks
Unseen and unlistened to; out of the door.
A knock on the door
And I get to see an unkempt beggar girl
‘The proliferation of beggary’ would make
A fancy title I ponder
While I nod my head and close the door
The last glimpse I catch of her
She planting a kiss on her little brother’s sores
At the nanosecond I gather myself and realize
‘The commitment to God’-that’s
What we first lost and never found!

Poem by: Malavika Binny