Circles of life – A stoic observation

Solitary Indian woman in a temple.

Signs of rejoicing
crackling,bursting, thundering outside
in the stillness of one’s abode
none to talk or make a sound,
quiet hum of a low running fan,
slowing ticking clock on the wall,
deafening sounds of the road muted
faint aroma of burning chemicals
breathed in but ignored,
contemplating,
philosophical soul wonders,
what reality is and what isn’t
the smiles one saw and
mimicked, does it make us smile?
That smile of ours, the contagious one,
is that now truly
ours, or theirs?
and that which they sported,
is it truly theirs?
fleeting moments these are,
said the mourning inner child,
still missing
the warmth of the grandma
it lost.
fleeting indeed it felt-
filling up our voids one second
and the next cease to exist
just as life does.
but, then the footprints
that are left,
the smiles, the warmth
those memories of prior crackers,
the sweet nothing laughter
are but too true
and fresh still to remember.
the smiles must be their afterall,
just as it was mine,
inner child’s sadness
wiped away
by memory’s warmth
smiling again –
this time too,
its contagious!