IN A YEAR’S TIME

I can still feel the sun rise the the creases of my palms
Watch the trees swaying in the breeze
Drown in the scintillating threads of moonlight and the serenade of stars
The roads, buildings and shops around all remain the same
Nothing much has changed in a year’s time
Or so it seems…

For I have walked countless miles
Been bruised, battered and fragmented
Yet rising each time to rejoin broken pieces
In yet another different frame
I have lived a countless lives, died a thousand deaths
Shouldered an immense burden of experience
Lived, loved and lost people, emotions and things
Built yet another storehouse of memories, some painful, others blissful

I have awaited with mounting courage and a tinge of impatience
The free passage of time
With hope that before I reach the end
I shall have accomplished all that I have meant
Through changing lenses of red, green and blue
I have viewed this world through and through
What seems a sparkle of neon lights
Is actually an eerie darkness of sinister nights
I have aged beyond my years
Now having mastered the art of smiling through my tears
A wild flower in a garden of roses
Trampled again and again, I have learnt to nurse my own bruises

Tomorrow evening I shall blow the candles
To a chorus of “Happy Birthday to You”
Once a budding poet, now a prolific writer
I am well aware of the irony of life, so bitter
And yet I still seek snippets of happiness
Between the fragmented pieces
Knowing deep down that
When I have dared to come this far,
There’s no looking back now
Even as I bow my head before the Almighty in humble obeisance
I am astounded by how much has changed in just a year’s trance…