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).


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