A Moonlit Night
Tonight I met my friends after a very long time;
Moon and stars in a navy blue sky,
I was standing on the terrace of my rented apartment,
10 past 10 on a Wednesday night.
I took in a deep breath,
And shut my eyes close.
A mild fragrance of jasmine mixed with the cool January air hit my nostrils,
Memories came flooding back from the long-forgotten past.
I missed my father yet again.
I remembered the nights I spent lying on a nylon cot on the terrace in my family home,
With my father lying next to me,
Pointing out the constellations in the sky,
And explaining to me the significance of an atom in a universe of the infinite.
I remembered the evenings with my mother in the kitchen,
My father wrapping my school books in brown paper covers,
While the young me, a 10-year-old,
Sat happily in our living room,
Watching my parents go about their worldly duties
And breathing in the sweet fragrance from the fresh blossoms of our rangoon creeper.
Tonight I went back in time;
Nearly two decades and more.
Tonight I felt a peaceful presence,
In my deeply troubled heart.
The moon and the stars of a pleasant January night,
Reminded me once again who my true friends have been all along,
Filled up the missing words in a sentence long left incomplete,
And wrapped me up in a big warm hug with a gentle goodnight kiss.
