The lonely hearts
To be fair to kids, greetings still arrive
With customary call on a birthday
That keeps the edgy memories alive,
Photo albums dust laden idly lay,
Alive stays once-in-a-while rare visit
That leaner gets, time passing bit by bit.
A Spartan house, whence kids left bit by bit,
Now spacious looks with few and far visit,
A needless treat for a death-weary old.
Parents do know, kids have their life to live,
Know too, today's youth is on endless drive,
Not easy for them to fit the new mould.
Peace of grey years rest on fitting this mould,
No fledglings back to nestling homes return,
No birds nor beasts are known to care for old,
The old for no return-favour should yearn
Children that take parental grace given,
Know not, one day they’d see a setting sun--
They that are lost in joys of rising sun,
The old has to give space to grown up son,
Love for love's sake and hope for no return,
Grin and bear till comes the call from heaven.
Till then let old their solitude savour,
Love's no love, wanting a return favour.
It’s not favour, kids’ moral behaviour,
If they can’t hearken to heart, let them head.
Till then let the old, memories savour,
Greet greeting cards, chew on visits once made--
A proof enough, the kids care for them still,
Is not doubt better than a bitter pill?
The lonely hearts live on a hope-made pill
Like farmers staring blank at rainless clouds,
Frustrations tied down by mind-made rope still
And memories wrapt like dead-body shrouds,
For, a hope’s better than frustrating proof,
Good to dream than lie under leaking roof,
Yea, better lonely than a leaking roof,
Far better still than furniture to be
O in an unknown land across the sea.
______________________
Sestina | 02.06.2012 | father, heart, loneliness, mother, parents
Note: Written on Fathers' Day (17th June). This sestina avoids intricate patterns of repetition of first stanza’s six end-words in a specific rotating pattern: (1-2-3-4-5-6) of the first stanza to (6-1-5-2-4-3) in the second and so forth. Sestina does not normally rhyme. But this one does though randomly. And the last word/s of the preceding stanza is repeated in the next.
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