After years,
your memory still
so fresh and anew,
I wonder if you lived,
what you would do,

To make a name,
to find an identity,
to live fuller life,
to marry your daughter off,
to see your son rise,

Oh, dear relative,
it's been ages,
that I heard your voice,
that I saw you laugh,
that I caught your lies,

It was a day full of joy,
when you heard I arrived,
I remember those days when
you loved and hugged me all of a sudden,

You used to whisper lullabies,
when we cousins never slept all night,
You baked us candy and breads,
so we put out hungry bellies to rest,

I still remember those summer holidays,
house of all little nutcrackers some days,
though you cherished us offsprings,
like little blue lights sparkling,
in the middle of the dark mood,
when you would be too sick to move,

Back then we didn't know,
if you were okay or it was a show,

They all told us to be out and quiet,
we obeyed for some time hoping we did something right,
some of us lurked around those doors,
where elders rushed words before the petrichor,

One day they put that white blanket on you,
telling us to pay our byes in bows,
it was the finality of a life,
but we all were still so naive,

No one told us or even me,
that your body had forgotten to breathe,
if I had the chance I would become your air,
to give you another life like a tire, a strong spare,

But I was a kid they all dismissed,
telling me and others alike to play rope and skip,
not asking or telling us about you,
or your journey of death that was due,

Had we got more time,
we would ask you to bake more,
to feed us little but hoard right,
for you musn't starve when you'd fly across after-death light,

And yes, I still miss you, Dear Relative,
wishing and hoping to find you in stars is now so implicit,
that's our truth that we will meet again some other day, in another lifetime,
where you will finish those bed time stories which you left us with in half in this life.


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© Nilakshi Garg