Four Decades. Four Tributes. Poem by Rajesh Narayanan

1

I was just 45 days old
You brought me home
Fed me, nurtured me
Cared me like a plant.

I slept beside you
Without any nightmares
Till the night before
My wedding bell rang.

Long twenty three years
I never feared anything
You were there behind me
Like my backbone always.

Taking last drops of water
You just waited for me
Took your last breath that night
Holding my hands so tight.

How can I repay that love
Care you gave me Amma,
Other than love my daughter
And always stand behind her!

2

Holding my tiny fingers
Walked through the estate roads
Life was so flowery those days
Till the day you fell sick.

Back from the mouth of death
You are working, living just for us.
We become your entertainment,
Your world, your life.

Oh my dear father,
You are my lighthouse,
You are my inspiration,
You are my best friend.

3

When I left you as a 45 days old
Even if it was for the sake of you,
I didn't realised, then and later
How much it hurt you, mother.

Being together for  many years
There was a wall between us.
Didn't recognised your efforts
To regain me and my love.

You gave me six siblings
Who love me as themselves
Now I love you mother
As much as your other kids.

4

You came into my life
When I am not prepared.
Unaware who I am,
What I want to be.

Shared my sorrows
Shared my happiness.
Gave me two diamonds
They makes me so proud.

You turned an aloof boy,
Into a husband first,
A loving son and brother,
A responsible father later.

How much you love me,
I cannot measure it ever.
Shashi, I owe you dear,
Whatever I am today.