Father Returning Home Poem by Dilip Chitre

Father Returning Home

Rating: 4.9


My father travels on the late evening train
Standing among silent commuters in the yellow light
Suburbs slide past his unseeing eyes
His shirt and pants are soggy and his black raincoat
Stained with mud and his bag stuffed with books
Is falling apart. His eyes dimmed by age
fade homeward through the humid monsoon night.
Now I can see him getting off the train
Like a word dropped from a long sentence.
He hurries across the length of the grey platform,
Crosses the railway line, enters the lane,
His chappals are sticky with mud, but he hurries onward.
Home again, I see him drinking weak tea,
Eating a stale chapati, reading a book.
He goes into the toilet to contemplate
Man's estrangement from a man-made world.
Coming out he trembles at the sink,
The cold water running over his brown hands,
A few droplets cling to the greying hairs on his wrists.
His sullen children have often refused to share
Jokes and secrets with him. He will now go to sleep
Listening to the static on the radio, dreaming
Of his ancestors and grandchildren, thinking
Of nomads entering a subcontinent through a narrow pass.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Chinedu Dike 12 June 2015

Lovely narrative poem, well articulated and nicely penned. Thanks for sharing. Please read my poem MANDELA - THE IMMORTAL ICON.

11 5 Reply
Captain Herbert Poetry 12 June 2015

a masterpiece kind of poem. Thank you very much

12 4 Reply
Rajnish Manga 12 June 2015

The poem is a true reflection on how an humble and lonesome old man finds himself in his own family. I quote a few lines: Man's estrangement from a man-made world... / His sullen children have often refused to share / Jokes and secrets with him.

9 2 Reply
Jasbir Chatterjee 18 April 2014

wow, another poem with so much depth...

8 2 Reply
Jasbir Chatterjee 12 June 2015

Congrats on being poem of the day today. This poem certainly deserved to be one; it conveys so beautifully the feeling of a lonely, old man...

6 2 Reply
Melvyn Rodrigues 02 August 2022

I liked the metaphor - I can see him getting off the train / Like a word dropped from a long sentence. / Wow...

1 0 Reply
Father returning home 11 December 2021

Dilip chitre

0 0 Reply
Bruzley 28 December 2020

Wonder full and amazing poem i like kollam poli saanaaam m****r

1 0 Reply
dr.sk.ajaz perveen 13 December 2020

loss of human values especially in indian culture too such things r happening so oss of culture that is SANSKAR

0 3 Reply
Bharat 23 September 2020

Amazing poem yensfwfyfwtftwfgwwftwftfwfwwfgwf

2 1 Reply
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