Mother's Dream Poem by indira babbellapati

‘A sixty year old dream
Recurred last night, '
She just shared with me
After her routine puja
A lump formed in my throat
Seeing her eighty year body
In a tremor and a forgotten quiver
In her otherwise passive voice
‘Do you remember the room
We used to sleep in?
Can you recall a small dark niche?
There I found a baby ivory elephant
When Ramakka was a toddler...
Now I found hoards of baby elephants
Ivory in colour and closely guarded by the mothers, '
She went on, ‘and then I found Sardar Vallabhai visiting us
For some reason I didn't know I followed him
Only to find myself lost and loitering till I sighed in relief
Sighting some people busy at construction...'
She paused... ‘once again to find hoards of elephants! '
And she walked to the table for lunch...