Snakes and Ladders

From long forgotten

Musty boxes in the attic,

A half torn,

Neatly folded,

Game of 

Snakes and ladders

Lay amidst the 

Dust 

Of childhood!

As I stared at it 

In disbelief,

Memories stirred 

And flooded my mind,

Of rainy afternoons 

And sunny holidays,!

A gang of girls,

Circled to play,

 the raucous game 

Of every day! 

Dices rolled,

Screams galore,

Pounding hearts 

That ladders climb,

Wringing hands 

That snakes do claim!

From 1 to 100,

Squares do go,

Fear and thrills 

Frill the board! 

Hours go by,

No boredom to 

Cry by,

Oh the agony and Ecstasy

Of this fantasy! 

Years rolled by,

The grey, coloured 

Long hair,

Worry lines spoke of 

Despair,

And as I looked at 

This game,

I realised 

How much like life 

It displayed! 

We roll the dice 

And take our chances,

We move to each square 

Precision confounded! 

A ladder gives a leg up 

Much like a godfather! 

But the deadly snake,

Destiny,

Lies in wait 

At every turn!

In relief 

We reach 97! 

But what lurks at 98? 

A venomous one 

That brings you down to eight! 

Fear grips 

The dice,

You need a two 

Sometimes it 

Rolls a one!

Whoever taught 

Children this game 

Never prepared them for the same! 

It was loads of fun 

On rainy days 

On sunny days 

And on all holidays! 

But as the child 

Became a man 

Or woman,

These are pointers 

Of what life may be! 

Destiny! 

All the emotions were

Real,

Sometimes surreal,

But at all times 

Very true!

In retrospect 

Decades later,

I realised,

What was a game 

To us,

Was in sum total 

A reality! 

Never mind 

I thought,

We had fun,

It brought laughter 

And tears,

That we remember with love,

It may have mirrored 

Life 

But it had the monopoly 

Of childhood

With all the kids of the neighborhood!