Dr. Baishali Bhaumik Mitra (2nd February 1971 / Kolkata)

Childhood is an innocent little girl!
Little girl Childhood
laughs aloud
like a crinkling jingling passionate
mountain brook.
She splashes and splurges
at every wonder of nature.
She is more fearless than the Himalaya,
she is buoyant like a passionate rainfall!
Her eyes shine twinkling sparkling stars,
she has dew drops on her smiling lips,
and jasmine flowers caught
in her unruly hair.
She plucks purity and
wears it on her ears
as shining ear-rings,
honesty is her bangles
that caress her soft hands.

I wanted to hold her
and cajole her to stay forever.
I did not notice time piling up!
Her hand slipped from my clasp.
May be I couldn’t hold her
as warm and as tight as I should have!
That moment,
on a gloomy monotonous morning,
with a nagging sound of rainfall
in the background,
I lost that innocent little girl
named Childhood!
Since then my eyes keep searching
among faces, among names
beyond the never ending ticking
of hours,
to have just one glimpse of
that little girl named Childhood.