Banyan Tree

There is a tree

Outside a railway yard

I wonder how long it’s been there,

What it has seen

Move past and beyond time.

I wonder if

Its leaves fall down

But they do not despair

For they have made 

The ground their home.

It has a deep brown bark

Bigger than I’ll ever be

And I wonder if

It remembers its childhood

Like i do mine

December has come around

And the leaves

Are void of colour

But if you touched it

It would embrace you

Like a mother

In labour,

It loses its vigour 

But replenishes itself

To love what loves it, me.

I wonder if 

Old age is taking its toll

But come monsoon

It will bloom again

Like a child’s first laughter

It smiles at me 

Through my train window 

The same smile

My mother’s face holds

When I leave home every day