That was at what time,
our mother said,
“we were working out on
a journey with friends and relatives.”
We were joyful.
We departed by picking
lonesome paths,
that carried eerie charge.
I was but eight.
Mother said,
people walked all the way
through wars.
It was in contrast to
whatever we conceived
it to be.
We did not ease or shut our eyes
or eat,
neither did we laugh en route.
Mother said,
people were dumb
during wars.
We were travel-stained.
We were the imbeciles
in war,
children, mothers and old
men and women.
Mother said,
fathers by no means
travelled during wars.
On this day,
I closely witness,
war in another country,
I wish to recount
how we endured on.
We had but only grandfathers.
Mini Babu is working as Associate Professor of English with the Dept. of Collegiate Education, Govt. of Kerala and now working at BJM Govt. College, Chavara, Kollam. Her poems have featured in anthologies, journals and magazines. Her collections of poems are Kaleidoscope (2020), Shorelines (2021) and Memory Cells (2022). Her co-edited collection of poems is Meraki (2021).
