You
You
You remind me of the lone flower growing in my nearby street lane
Regardless of the dirt and ignorance you never forget to grow a little; each day
You’re happy that they’d never pluck you out of your homeland
But equally sad of being unnoticed unknown
You look at your petals and comfort your heart by rubbing your hands together
Was I meant to be never looked after?
You’d question;
The next street bungalow would have a huge space for all the flowers but you
You’d watch the colors of the sky and wait for the time when it finally rains
Each droplet of water is poetry to your soul
Rare and healing;
You remind me of the wheel of my first bicycle
Circle beholding lines with colorful circles;
When I’d step my feet on the pedal,
You’d move and become one
You absorb all the colors but yet refuse to be one.
You pray for my bruised feet
You very well know
The skin would heal and forget, but you
One day would be alone in the backyard
No one would step on the pedal for you to spin
Would you Dance with me? The circles would yell
No one yet; Desolate backyard would reply
You were never
meant to be abandoned.
You remind me of the last cheesecake I had with my Dad
Before he met with an accident
Will, I ever choose you again from the Desserts menu?
No. but now when I read ‘cheesecake’
My lungs read ‘struggling for air’
Huge dictionaries but none covering your existence
All this evolution, languages, and folklore
You were never in their words.
Nor is the side characters of tribute.
You were never meant to be abandoned
Your existence existed before literature
While you read my poem
It doesn’t fix the misery of decades
It doesn’t prove to be a band-aid on bruise;
Nor poetry to the soul
Your mouth yet filled with unspoken words, tongue too perplexed to cooperate.
Survival is your first instinct; fear of abandonment is second
You close your eyes and look up at the colors of the sky
With stretched palms beholding the universe
You recite -
“Because no matter how wide you stretch your fingers,
your hands will always be too small to catch all the pain you want to heal.”
You bloom in the side lane of the street under city lights.