Tag: poem

To Rolfe – an Elegy

Published on by Harpreet Chhachhia1 Comment

(Episode One – 16th November 2001)

I never did like you.
That I think you know.
You must have known,
When we left you in that cage:
Locked from home and things familiar.
Your mind being physically jerked.
You lying there,
Quiet in your vomit;
Lying there and looking at me,
Up at me, with your chin on the floor,
Looking with eyes that don’t see –
But speak volumes:
Liquid, soft, scared – quiet.

We are all brought here somehow,
To suffer somehow,
And survive somehow, with life or with death.
But somehow – somehow – you should be exempt from all of this.

Yet there you were –
As I left for home –
Walking haphazard,
Dry nose against clapped iron,
After three days of fast,
Three days of gut wrenches,
Three days of muted pain.
All rewarded by an indefinite exile in Howl Hole.
(We have it far easier –
At least there is someone
Waiting
Outside.)

I never did like you.
But if they would
I would be waiting outside.
That I think you know.

(Episode Two – 19th November 2001)

Fifth day.
You were quiet and weak.
They were non-committal and complacent.
We were ignorant of all
But your suffering – or were we?
I misunderstood your yells
As you lay immobile – pierced everywhere.
Fed you with trickles of water,
After a five day fast.

Five days.
What were they like to you?
And the nights?
What horror did you feel –
Alone – in a cage – sick to the bone?
My punishment is my regret.
If any consolation
(If one can call it that)
Is when you returned home:
Within mere minutes,
You were at peace.

R.I.P.

To Rolfe.

Published on by Harpreet ChhachhiaLeave a comment

Those round and bulging and luminous eyes!
And those ears that hung outward like a bat!
An expression of a Pug in disguise –
Mobile even before the drop of the hat!
Tawny coloured, alert and bendy-backed,
A flimsy walk and a nonchalant air,
Quite a few faults I know he did not lack,
A will that would make him pick any dare.
That was Rolfe, whom some call my second best –
E’en I used to think so up until now –
Now that he has passed the Ultimate Test:
To prove I loved him anyway and how!
Angels came and took him from us today,
I loved him – guess that’s all I wanted t’say.

20th November

To G—-

Published on by Harpreet Chhachhia2 Comments

I remember many a thing
That a special moment to the mind can bring:
I remember our Childhood –
Can we forget it? (Oh, as if we could!)
I remember the orange horizons and purple clouds,
The Garden with the butterfly crowds;
I remember a sassy little tomboy
And those small, memorable moments of joy;
I remember that blue pretty dress
And you, seated on the divan, in a flare;
I remember those scholastic times of stress,
With you in tartan red and oily hair;
I remember those tube-lit journeys,
Of valiant Rescues and rural Journeys;
I remember the coterie of friends
And you, tagging along at the deep end;
I remember jealousy, too, and fights,
But then there were always ‘Xmas lights.
I remember a Nanny’s favouritism,
But that made up for my criticism.
I remember you turning overnight,
From gauche darkness to vain delight;
I remember hours of reading and listening
And a sharing of likes and mutual feeling;
I remember so many things in this life,
But, through all the joy and the strife,
I remember you always being there –
And although I don’t mention it, I care;
And although I don’t say it (nor do you),
I love you as much as you love me, too.

2nd April.