Lines dedicated to my Grandmother
Today is her 12th death anniversary

If you were alive
You would have seen
How much I am delving deep
In the heritage you bequeathed
More than a decade in your native city
I am travelling for hours and hours
Covering miles
making myself and making myself
Acquainted with all the streets
You discussed in your nostalgic stories
I often tread upon those paths
Passing through the lanes
you once described .

Sometimes I visualize
You laughing
stretching your thin lips
Sitting amongst dead relatives
And friends close to family
You would be meeting all...
In heaven I suppose...
You went years back
Now a citizen of another world
I can hear in imagination
Your dominating voice echoing
Thundering the hearts of the newcomers
In your new world ...

Here on this earth ; your discarded world
I often tell your tales to your great grandson
amazed he is , on counting the wrinkles
On your nonagenarian face in the album
And those thin limbs trigger a chain of questions
Unending questions about your being...
As he sees
A skeleton with a thin layer of flesh
Skin just glossy just like polythene...
No teeth; hollowed out cheeks...
And silvery silky hair; loosely tied...
You had closed your eyes
Before he could see you in reality
How exactly you looked alike

Shraddha S Sahu
© Shraddha S Sahu