Children Are Foes ! Poem by Vadakkumpurath Ramesan

His hairs turned grey
He found her too turned grey
He saw the skin with lines
On both as the herald
Of the arrival of old-age.
The grey eyes of both
Bore the shadows of indifference
The shadows of helplessness
And the eyes swelled with tears
That rained incessantly
With sigh of oldness.
They looked back
The years where they eloped
And talked to flowers,
Butterflies, caterpillars
And the bees and green leaves
And even tendered the ripened.
They felt shocked to see
The off- springs vying
To abandon them
The memory of the children
Still invoke the labour pain
And the umbilical pain
And the wail of the womb!
The dishonest children
Rejected them with no shame
And presented them
To the old-age homestead
With a heavy purse
To the man who runs it!
They with tears and wounded
Hearts thanked their children
For not abandoning
On streets at the dusk of life!
The thankless births
Busy with their ordeals
Failed to remember
That the green leaves will have
A day that of the ripened fell down!
The green leaf will laugh
As the ripened leaf falls.
They felt deeply
That they were denied
Of the domestic animal's
Right to stay and nursing!
The snake births
Failed to listen
That the giggle of childhood
The anxiety of adolescence
The dynamics of youth hood
Will bid adieu
As the murmur of old-age
Arrives on the doorstep
On tomorrow to them.