
It’s X’mas! The lights array the town alive. Strains of joy reach the ear from afar, but why is it that my heart feels heavy, skips a beat as you come into my thoughts? As my eyes scales the humungous X’mas father at the City Centre, grinning his toothless self, I disconnect from now and move into the ‘then,’ reliving those precious moments of ours untold. Do I miss you? Yes, I do! I miss the shades of peace, of love all along.
Daddy,
You’ve been so good to us. You’ve never told us that X’mas was not ours to celebrate! Instead, you’ve stayed up as we hung the stars, the bells, and the lights. The memories of those childish delights still wring my heart and bring a catch into my throat. Now that my kids have flown away, time hangs on still! My thoughts tread back to you a lot. Remember, how I used to land up at your doorstep each noon after college, worn out and scorched red by the blazing flame! You used to bear the extended wait quite patiently, and then would have the meal with me. The concerns, the consideration, have vanished beyond my palms outstretched.
Daddy,
I miss you dear! I miss your pats, your hugs, your lessons to me. One summer eve, when I was four, we had walked the bay hand in hand. “Can we take home a fish today?” asked I. “Why not? said he. So together we took home a greyish black beauty all safely trapped in a transparent case. Never did you preach the ‘Science’ to me. You left me on my own to learn my lessons right. It was the thrill before the kill, for the still figure that greeted me in the morning broke my heart. You suggested that maybe it’s the salt water, the sea that it needed to keep it alive. My lesson I had learnt well that day!
Daddy,
You’ve been my hero, my patch of green to hold on to for years. Be my breath again, and let me be YOU to my kids. Care to come down again…just once…as a gentle breeze, a shower to blow life into my tired limbs?
Your Darling Daughter,
Yours for ever