Unattended And Left To Be On His Own Poem by Bashyam Narayanan

Morning
Dad gets up what time
I have no idea
Mom gets up to get busy
In the kitchen

All moving here and there
Dad gets ready
Starts his bike with a kick
Mom climbs up on its back
With a huge bag
Carrying lunch for both

Both wave hands
And the same sentence
“Stay good and eat in time”
And they leave

A grandma at home
Always on bed
Most of the time sleeping
Rest coughing
At times I run to help her
With a glass of water or to
Fetch her medicines

She is, in fact, at home
To take care of me

No one at home to feed me
I eat, on my own, the rice
Kept in casserole at my reachable height
I finish eating with
Food paste smeared all over my body

I do not know what
Other children do at home
When left alone like this

I do not know when this
Struggle of mine will end
Maybe, when I am put in a
Boarding school

I will grow big like my dad
Study well and get a job
But, am determined to marry
Only that woman, who will not
Go for work and
Take care of her kid
Not the one like my mother
Who leaves her kid at home
Unattended and
To be on his own