They Keep Me Company Poem by Amar Agarwala

They keep me company -
Old letters, yellowed pictures,
Quaint artefacts and reminiscences.

I touch them with my fingers
Feeling remainants of the past,
Sombre sacraments my heart has treasured.

They help me through my days -
While away my dark and lonely hours,
Taking me on a sojourn to bygone times.

I need to close my eyes -
Take a deep breath and ready,
To feel like I did once upon a time.

Happy that my mind
Has kept the relics of the past -
Intact, just as they were once.

The sounds, the fragrances,
A look, a touch, a smile, a tear -
I even see what I once could not.

My naiveté then compelled
Or perhaps I chose to ignore,
Maybe, I had not the sense I have today.

The past subtly commingles
With my present and stops short -
Barred from doorways of tomorrow.

But I carry them in my heart
Those sounds, fragrances and feelings -
Which leave a smile, a tear and sighs.

Like wreaths upon the graves
Within my heart - that it may cherish,
That subtle touch of my bygone days.

They keep me engaged
The old letters, yellowed pictures
Little artefacts - ruins of my past.

Times I wish I could let go
But for strange reasons I hold on,
Or maybe they are loathe to let go of me.

They are now my companions
Who straddle my desolate moments,
With pleasure, pain and a deep longing.

Broken fragments of my past -
Which will ever remain with me,
I know they will keep me good company!
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