Back To Childhood

Memories clashed with nostalgia as I wandered childhood lanes again.

The heavens were pregnant with emotion, threatening to unleash rain.

Trees swayed and danced sinuously to caress the roving breeze,

Butterflies flitted, floating enticingly near, trying to nudge & tease.

Was that a giggle I heard? A gay sound liberated and unbound?

Or was it my childhood calling me to come to indulge in a second round?

Whatever it was, it was alluring and it cast its spell on me.

I sank deeper into its embrace, I was enraptured you see.

Then I chanced upon the Banyan that still stood stately calm.

I gazed at it and a memory surfaced, as beautiful as malm.

I remembered swings and hammocks swaying to gentle motherly hands.

Those were the days when afternoons had been spent in these lands.

What a carefree childhood it was, chasing dandelions in the leas;

Shooing away the cows and entreating them with gentle pleas.

In the sun-kissed grass we had lain, basking in the warm love.

So many times we had fallen asleep to the cooing of the dove.

Just then a wily breeze blew and stirred up the dust of memories anew.

It raked up emotions long suppressed and nudged them into fore view.

The fallen leaves that littered the lane rose up as if in molten flow

They danced around to unheard melodies, made my nostalgia grow.

A yearning rose in my heart, a longing deep-rooted. I pined.

What was gone was gone I mused; melancholy I sighed.

Then like a ray of brilliance that sheds magic in our realm

I spied my old house; I sped off. The elm still stood at the helm.

I felt weariness ebb away as I entered the hallowed ground.

It was a refuge, a haven that stood resplendent with trees around.

I sat and breathed in the secure childhood air of calm.

And I knew just then that once again I was safe here from all harm.