by Sowmya Hegde
Soumya Hegde writes a poem on the longing one feels for a lost love. An old woman still thinks of a man she had fallen in love with during a train journey years ago. No matter how short-lived, this first love haunts her even in her twilight years.
There is an old coral jasmine tree
in our backyard,
And an older wooden chair under it.
My grandmother sits there in the evenings,
Looking like an oil painting
Hung on the corner of the wall;
Faded, neglected and yet so beautiful.
She talks about a man,
A man she once loved;
Long before she became a mother,
Long before she met my grandfather.
She was a girl, who wore sunflowers in her hair,
The first time she saw him she knew,
She had found a home in his big brown eyes.
A moment ago,
He was just a passenger in the front seat,
But became her whole world in the blink of an eye.
They talked, they laughed,
They sang their hearts out.
They fell in love on a train journey.
He wrote her a poem about
Her long hair and that sunflower.
My grandmother sits under the old tree,
With memories of her first love,
Clutching a parchment that talks
About her long hair and a sunflower.
Sometimes she weeps,
Other times she smiles,
And talks about a man she once loved.
Soumya Hegde is an engineer by the day and a poet of the night. All she needs in life are a little rain, coffee and books. She believes in uprooting patriarchy one poem at a time.
It was remarkable. When I was reading it aloud I thought of myself in the train .👏👍