A brief enjoyment in this world!

Half this stuff is remembered,
Half of it is forgotten.
Mama always stopped to pat me,
A lot we spoke to each other.
Mmm – mmm, she made delicious
Pickles, kheer and pan-hot snacks.
I wrote down as much as I could.
Half her recipes are intact,
Half of them are misplaced.
A brief enjoyment in this world!

Shining in the glaze of black,
Granpa’s Dodge was whopping huge.
When it blew its foggy horn,
I ran towards it with open arms.
I hung for long moments in the car,
Thinking right now, Granpa’s driver
Would make me relive,
The magical drive of: The Mall.
A brief enjoyment in this world!

Nothing can make up for this…
I look away in tears!
Daddy sitting down in comfort,
To smoke his ‘hookah’ pipe.
He looked so handsome and alert,
In his brown corded dressing gown.
And then I think of:
A brief enjoyment in this world!
Half this stuff is remembered,
Half of it can never be forgotten.

13th August 2011

Geeta Chhabra

Glossary.
hookah – A smoking pipe having a long tube passing through an urn of water that cools the smoke as it is drawn through.