Two Cringeworthy Poems From Younger Days

The memories of our past tends to have a contradicting effect on our nostalgia. As much as our photographs from younger days brings us joy, so much so our thoughts and words from bygone days tend to make us cringe.

Five years ago, on January 1, 2016, I wrote two collection of words that I hesitate to call “poems”. They made me flinch a bit when I read them today, but here they are. Read at your own risk. Remember, I warned you in advance.

Prayer From A Washroom

Washroom in a Shopping Mall (Jaipur, India)

During my brief stint

As a janitor in a shopping mall,

I called dibs on the Handicap Washroom every morning

Makes sense statistically, if you think about it.

And on most days, I said a prayer:

“Let no one be born this day, that needs to use this washroom”

It was a very selfish prayer.

Or maybe not.

— — — — — — — — — — — —

An Evening Alone With Words

Raymond Carver, Coffee, and a Diary (January 1, 2016)

And that’s what it was -

January 1, 2016.

And the day after.

A book, and a pen, and a diary.

“Without hope and without despair”

I wrote that down in my diary.

The light falling on the glossy book cover

Like glimmering stars on a still river.

Starry Night Over the Rhone (by Vincent van Gogh) — Courtesy: The Internet

I think of van Gogh

On the shores of River Rhone.

Alone.

Stars

Shimmering on the water

Stick boats seeming more alive than

The floating couple -

The couple seem like a last minute addition —

a final stroke to a finished painting,

Like Man

Created on the last day,

When everything else was

Done and Dusted.

To dust He will return

Like Vincent.

Asleep.

To be Resurrected by Don McLean.

The girl who told me about the song

Was at a coffee shop

When I first met her.

She had green eyes

And piano fingers

And a friend who loved Hemingway.

“What d’you think it means?”

She asked.

“Not that song, the other one — American Pie”

I looked into her eyes

And said nothing

It probably meant

Goodbye.

I press my lips to the enameled rim of china -

The coffee is cold.

It is time to leave.

I make one change though,

Final touch to a finished poem

“With hope and with despair”

That is how my days will be

And that is how I want them to be.

— — — — — — — — —

To listen to the song, Don McLean — Vincent ( Starry, Starry Night)