CHANGE
I used to look out my window,
My gaze running down the street,
I would see three children playing,
With no shoes on their dusty feet.
Their chirpy voices irked me,
Sometimes comforted me when I was alone,
Their father had a hut made of steel,
And also a heart made of stone.
Their mother was kinder than him,
As she let the children play,
The children skipped about fearlessly,
Though the street dogs came their way.
There were three of them too,
Two black and one was brown,
I like to think that the poor family,
Like having the stray dogs around.
And so that was their life,
Three dogs,three kids, mother and father,
Long lived that incongruous harmony,
Till their land was claimed by some other.
I woke up to the sound of felling,
As they tore at the family's home,
I did not see the frightened children,
I did not hear the dogs moan.
They're probably out there somewhere,
Hopefully in a better place,
Change did bump into me quickly,
And I could just stare at its face.
Did they know I saw them,
Through my window every single day?
Did they know I felt nothing for them,
Till the day they went away?
It’s silly how very insignificant,
Some things seem to be,
And how I feel their absence,
Though they weren't much to me.
I got used to them, that's all,
And I'll get used to the emptiness too,
But I've learned now, to acknowledge things,
Before they're gone and replaced by the new.
Copyright: Jaee Manerkar (2015)