Old Fear Poem by DILIPBHASKER MATHRA

My heart beats oft
Like a trumpet in the
Silent night.
I don’t know the reason,
The fear of untrodden thought
Of spirits, such, perhaps
A gift of my childhood!
I remember still
When I cried
My mother told
The stories of devil
Lived on the palm tree
Who had killed and drunk
The blood of many
Those who travelled
In the moonless night.
I forgot to cry and
Slept well in fear
Under the arms of my mother
And woke up many mid-nights
Seeing fearful dreams
Of the devil
Creeping into the room.
Hearing such stories I grew up
Year after year.
The changes brought me up
Into a man of diversities
But the old fear haunted me
Every now and then in my life.