Poem: Little Unseen Things for Love
Another inspired poetry based on ‘Unseen’, by Sarah Polyakov, 2022.
The feeling of love fades over time. It is difficult for the lovers to keep at it, and the lessons are there from Nature. Nature relies on seasons and love relies on reasons — the purpose for love. And the little unseen things. This poetry is crafted as a conversation between a honey-eyed girl who has lost her love, and her grandmother who walks beside her, sharing her wisdom.
She stood at the edge of the garden
Fresh spring and smiling blooms
With her walked her grandmother
Slow and withered, leaning on a walking stick
Asked her grandmother, to kill her silence mere,
‘Why are you sullen and withdrawn, my dear?’
Tears swelled in her honey-colored eyes
‘Nana, life is gone from our lives
We exist and breathe, but walk dead’
‘Like walking below the starless sky
In still air and moonless night’
‘Standing lonely in the desert
In the blazing summer bright’
‘He stares at the Mac or watches the Bowl’
‘Whenever I taunt or try, he returns a scowl’
The little pranks, the snuggles, and the pecking kiss
Are long gone, what did we miss?’
‘If only we could breathe fire into the dying embers
Of the love and the breezy past that we remember’
Her sighs dissolved in the fresh spring air
‘Dear, my dear child’, said the grandmother
‘Even this beautiful nature has its seasons
Pray, tell me, what might be the reason?’
‘Winter and summer, autumn and spring’
Change is the only permanent thing’
‘Even the new shiny and star-crossed love
Like the fresh and flowery paper on the walls
Fades away with time, slowly and somehow
Discolored and torn, lovelife is worn
Exposing the frailty of the real human inside
Fickle are the moments, fickler are the memories’
‘Take a little bit of stardust,
Add a bit of life and then love
Store it in our skin and bones,
Let it mature like fine wine
That is what we are and
That is what we are supposed to be ’
‘Nature is eternal, flowers aren’t;
Dear, Love is eternal, lovers aren’t’
‘If nature needs seasons to refresh and revive
Love needs reasons to keep the romance alive.’
‘Rekindle the dying fire — some new pranks and capers
Tear down the old and put up a new wall paper’
Reminded the grandmother ‘It is always the unseen little things’
‘That gives the love birds their wings’.
It dawned on the honey-eyed girl clear
After the words of wisdom from grandmother dear.
~ Ashok Subramanian
