Songs and Stories
I am now as old as the days
Of grandma's stories.
But I remember the tales as the boy
Who heard them.
There were songs too,
In ancient tongues.
Grandma sang -
O my old man! You who ate taro root
And died,
Eat pumpkin and come back.
King's horse has a stiff tail.
Are you riding a white horse?
And she told me a story.
A thief sneaked into her home,
While she was weaving a loin-cloth
For grandpa.
It was late in the night and she was alone.
Grandpa had prowled out at sundown
To handle safety of the village, for
He was the tiger-man of the hamlet.
The thief was hiding behind the oil lamp,
And grandma began telling the lamp about
Grandpa's mighty paws and battles he won.
And she continued her thread-work fearlessly.
Listening to grandma,
The intruder's heart began to pound in fear.
He cursed his luck, silently, for his mistaken selection,
A tiger's house.
He tiptoed backward, and darted out,
Leaping over my ancestral threshold like a fox
Frightened by ghostly imaginations.
Grandma smiled wisely, and began singing
Another song,
When she heard a tender roar approaching.
Copyright © Ibohal Kshetrimayum | Year Posted 2019
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