by Debleena Roy
Children often gift their parents precious moments in their small handwritten notes on cards, which they offer for no reason other than love. What if parents are too busy to read these little notes? What happens when the children grow up and leave their homes, leaving behind these paper memories? Debleena Roy writes a poem.
Tiny picture letters,
Notes misspelt and crooked,
Love spelt wrong,
A pink bird taller than
A house by a green
Mountain, a rainbow
On a letter painted and
Wrapped with love.
“For you, Mummy,”
She gives you her card,
Glued with imagination,
Written with hope.
You hardly look up
To read her love.
“I am busy,” you say
She turns away, alone.
Tiny picture letters,
Faded crooked words,
Now line the walls,
Of the empty nest.
The cards are all
That’s left. Time’s flown,
So has she, taking all the rest.
You dust each old card,
Ten times a day,
Each forgotten moment,
Now a shadow of a wreath.
You pick up the phone,
You call, and you hear
“I am busy, Mummy…”
Paper memories’ death.
Debleena Roy is a Bangalore based writer, poet, singer and storyteller. She believes that stories, told with passion and humour, can make the world a less cynical place. Mother of an imaginative nine-year-old, she finds herself spinning stories to engage and teach her, learning much more in the process. Her stories and poems have been published in multiple online journals and one of her short stories for children has been accepted for publication in Class 3 ICSE Reader.
