Over a cup of steaming lemon-tea, this poem came to me...though not meant to be, but would fit Coolaaron's challenge to a T...
London-Reflections, Then and Now (Would fit Coolaaron's Challenge)
In the wee hours of the morn,When the time stands still,
World slumbers in the twilight mist,
Birds may have begun to chirrup-
But you can't hear them,
You're windowed in-
In South-East London home-
Away from the life's din...
And the quietude makes you think-
As usually happens on such morns:
You think of the years gone by,
When you'd first set foot on this soil:
Young, enthusiastic, full of beans-
Nineteen summers in life seen-
Everything you loved about the place,
It reminded you of home...
Curry, spices and pickles you sought,
An evening under the Cleopatra's Needle,
Fountains dancing at the Trafalgar Square,
A walk along the Westminster-
Admiring the gothic architecture,
you thought was really quaint...
Struggling with the language you had always spoken,
Yet people never understood the 'Indian accent'...
And it did not even bother you, as brazen
in the park you had luncheon...
Shopping for studded jeans
And books of Solzhenitsyn-
Banned in Moscow, where you studied medicine-
With the thrill of tasting the fruit-forbidden...
Open-air theaters, where you went 'Shakespearean'...
And many more images
Filter through the morning's hazy curtains
Floating before the mind's eye...
Time has gone by
And today Thames flows with the similar calm,
Centuries of water, gallons and gallons,
must have since flowed...
On the banks stands the Tower Of London.
And you think of those
'Hanged, Drawn and Quartered',
Maybe some of them your own forefathers...
History intermingles past with present...
A Nation that has flowed like blood
in your veins...and you still love it!
(Maybe deep down even resent it...)
Today,
With all your obstacles overcome with time,
You can communicate without a hitch,
Say what you have to say,
and be understood.
Express your fears, desires and tribulations
Sorrows, joys and frustrations-
(Without batting an eyelid)-
And get even appreciated...
Sit and chat on the dinner table
With your daughter who has taken
a step further-
Has chosen this town to live in...
Life has come full circle...
You sit,
Contemplate and introspect...
And a question suddenly pops up:
Was it really worth it?
Author: Zoya Zaidi
London, 18th Aug 2006
Aligarh (UP), India
Copyright©: Zoya Zaidi
Poetry by Zoya Zaidi
Read 678 times
Written on 2006-08-31 at 14:19
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