'Time Goes By...' Poem by Pushpinder Kaur

Time Goes by…

Time goes by
Piling layers upon layers of memories
Each brain cell seems a bottomless reservoir
An endless abyss

Silence and memories
Seem undeniably bonded
One leading to the other
One followed by the other

The silence of my mother's house
Her temple, Gurudwara and Citadel
That breathes pure love, honesty and integrity
Fills the silence to the brim

Replenishes the emptiness
Filling it with an everlasting
Softness, solace and security
Reminiscent of the warmth of her womb

Walking through the empty house
Hearing only the sound of my own footsteps
With her gone five years now
The early morning chirping of the birds
The Red-wattled Lapwing and its peewit
Brings back to mind childhood days
When early morning
Mom would comb my hair into neat plaits for school
The same peewit obliterates the gap in time

Every whiff of the breeze around the house
The squeaking of the squirrels that frolic up and down
The 50-year-old Mango tree, nearly as old
As the foundation of her house
The smell of the air inside and out
Are all the same Mom
But…

Pushpinder Kaur10.10.2020