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Precious

It was meant to be precious
It was among the two
That you were to get
One was your mother
And it was her
How you thought about
Thought them
While tramping in the melee
You had been to places
You always wanted
What you needed
Never before you carried
Such a picture
At which you would smile
With prolonged fondness
And you looked for a word,
A word that would exact it
That was love
The thing that had long evaded
The thing that you had known
The thing that stared
At your back
She changed you
Changed you after so long
Made you stand
Before what you had avoided
It was her you carried
It was her smiles that
You stared at with smiles
You stored up her words
Even the unsaid ones
She once said
She wanted to find a quiet place
Where she could find peace
The place where Buddha was
You knew that
So it was that you knew
It was that you had in your mind
A shawl for your mother
Buddha for her
You smiled when she asked you
Asked you to get her something
It was the coincidence
But you knew not
When she would take it
You knew not
If she would like it
You thought them
Oblivious to fact,
Fact that she could
Never be yours
She would be
What she had been
But you wore
Oblivion as spectacles
Away from the melee
You sat on the river bank
With the spectacles on
And without them
It was her
Dancing on the current
It was her you saw
It was love
It was your Nungsibi

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