Imitate
"From distance, I saw
movement of his lips,
eyes shut,
knelt on the rough patch of earth"
Written By: NIBEDITA MOHANTA
From distance, I saw
movement of his lips,
eyes shut,
knelt on the rough patch of earth,
and then I read
whispers of prayers flowing
with the moving breeze,
brushing past me,
making my hair raise on tips.
That was the strength of prayer
or of the Almighty, he knelt before,
I felt it like I was drenched with it.
Every inch of my soul was
dipped in emotions,
as if I jumped into a still ocean,
and then when I opened my eyes
I was floating, but
not on the surface of the water,
I was floating somewhere
in between the surface and the bottom.
I felt like I turned into
a mermaid.
Then I heard a sharp tune,
coming from behind,
tune produced by
strings and bamboo skin,
I saw the man giving birth
to new melodies with his
bare fingers.
I stood there crying,
like he was singing on my behalf,
there were no words,
but I could feel my lips trembling.
He was accompanying words,
like they were universal.
But aren't all heart breaks the same?
I hear them and attach
my lose threads of emotions,
Finding a companion in those verses,
narrating my story through them
conveying the unspoken words.
Who would listen to them anyway,
aren't we all dealing with
our own heartbreaks?
We all are arrested by our own emotions,
chained with the chains of aloneness,
we are not lonely but at times,
we long for someone’s touch,
someone’s attention and someone’ care.
Deep down we are all the same with
different masks on.
we crave for an ear to hear us,
our cries and laughter.
We crave for an eye to see us,
in our vulnerable self.
I think that’s why
we get carried away by someone’s tune
or someone’s prayers as if they are
imitating our inner self effortlessly.