When I was young, I remember my mother playing,

A game of fun and companionship, for my entertaining.

If we learnt all the rules, and played by the book,

We would have thrills and delights and may even find a crook.

On such occasions I would rejoice, and join her,

With her delight would arise my own, and we would be together.

Then one day an old bearded man came, and we all went to hear him,

She listened and something changed, as she abandoned our plaything.

Mother said that the man spoke about, opening the cave in our hearts,

Me I also tried at a tender age, to find this cave inside me and all its parts.

The times passed and I moved on with my life, and grew distant, from my mother,

My wife and children took up my time, and I worked for my living, for another.

Life had its sweet moments and its sorrows, and we would visit on celebrations,

My father passed away and my mother was aging, and we talked of separations.

One day she reminded me of the old man, and how she had filled the cave in her heart,

She felt she had done all her life needed, and the time was coming soon for us to part.

Now when I walk in the woods, and come upon a cave,

Oftentimes I feel my mother’s heart beating there, bidding me to be brave.

Rajiv July 2020