Repentance

Our fingers touched momentarily

While buying our daughter’s jewellery

You removed yours, in shock

I realized, I had been a jerk

This thought lingered all along

We did the shopping, we ate dinner out

We came to our car to head back home

While I took the wheel, child in front, you sat alone

Thirty years of our marriage

It took me this long, to understand

I had lost my companion

In the hum-drum and life’s commotion

I see our daughter excited

Perhaps you were too, in those days

I am not sure –

She chose her partner, our was arranged

You tried your best to please me

You were a dutiful wife and a doting mother

I was the man and acted my part

And that perhaps snapped the bond apart

In the balcony, with my last cigarette

You inside, getting ready for bed

I remember well, our first year

Honeymoon, picnics, a life full of cheer

All vanished like a puff in the air

I lost you and did not have time to care

Now, when our daughter is getting married

I pray, her life is light-hearted

Please forgive me my sweetheart

For I have sinned

No amount of my tears can balm your suffering

But tomorrow, is a new day and first of spring