Your smile
When you smile
I recall
The first dawn
Seen in the crimson Himalayas
From a rented villa balcony
Overlooking an echoing deep valley;
The first rainbow
Glimpsed from a passing train,
Arching over a vast plain
Freshly flooded by the white rains,
The colours lighting up the rain-waters
Like broken emeralds;
The first hearty giggle of a toddler
Being tossed by a soldier-papa
Just
Returned from a harrowing war,
The first smile of a terminally-ill patient,
Slightly recovered and optimistic,
At the caring visitor from
A dim past,
And—
The grin flashed at a customer
By an ageing Thai mother
Selling fruits and hats,
From her flat boat
In the floating market of Bangkok.
Yes, dear,
Your smile
That captures the freshness of life
And says it all
Through that slight curve
Of full luscious
Red lips
And a round mouth
That glows in the night
Like a baby-moon
In the profound rain-forests
Still visited by the spirits
From cultures of yore.
A rewarding read.
Thanks a lot Gopal Lahiri.
The inattentive reader caught unawares might overlook the entry point to the unfolding narrative thread so skilfully bound up in ,” Your smile “. ” When you smile ,I recall..” unfurls a quintet of joyful ,ruminative episodes which in their turn take us back to the smile before ending with an enduring metaphor.
Thanks Louis for your penetrating analysis.
delightful write!
Julia—I am indebted to you.