The Dimwit Poem by Pradip Chattopadhyay

Still with me his memory stays
A boy I knew in childhood days
On street corner he bore the sun
From rain emptied road didn't run!

They called him screwed up bit insane
His skin was numb sense felt no pain
Else why he would just aimless roam
Most of time outside of home!

If asked his name in whispered hum
Would say I don't know knows my mum
What's two plus two if asked some fool
His answer was not taught in school!

To a school he was though never sent
His class was road book firmament
All he knew was that syllabus
His own riddles and plus minus!

He was known as good for none
Except for pranks and some fun
Ill clad uncared like an urchin
There wasn't a home with a boy like him!

Woke me one night footsteps and shouts
In a neighborhood house fire had broken out
Amid billowing smoke and leaping flame
The crowd was crying out the boy's name!

He had gone in there without a thought
The fire's fury he was afraid not
It seemed so silly this heroic feat
But the boy you know was too dimwit!

To this day it haunts me to know
Why he did that what to show
I heard the buzz rumors were rife
He had gone in there to save a cat's life!