If you have been following this space you might remember I had written about the rhyme scheme and my first poem. In another honest confession, the next poem I wrote was just before the HSC Exams long before I took to writing regularly whilst in engineering. Well, for all my troubles, (and more so of someone else who has over the years taken the trouble of piecing together all those shards of paper with my rhymes on them,) I found the second poem I had written. Not a maiden venture but perhaps valuable because it is the oldest draft of my poems still alive. Didn’t know whether or not to put it up here but after long contemplation (and a momentary feeling of spontaneity) I finally decided to put it up. So here goes:
(Oh! and it is mandatory to leave a comment here...)
Fell off my bike and had more than just a scrape,
Was taken to the hospital for the mandatory scan and tape,
I saw this nice girl who though was bald,
Asked her if Agassi she had dolled?
To me she then looked and gave a wry smile,
That icy stare could have frozen me from a mile,
“Well,” she stated and said in treatment she had lost,
Her auburn hair and her beautiful locks,
She said that radiation had slowly eaten through,
Not just her tumours but her body too,
She said that she had it in her lungs,
And one day she’d coughed blood whilst at her mum’s,
It was then that doctors and meds,
Had found the cancer that in her had bred,
The dreaded tumour though was small and wouldn’t kill,
But keep her nonetheless for a lifetime ill…
Then she told of the millions all over,
Who unlike her couldn’t afford the medical cover,
Told me about the thousands who would everyday count,
The days as the medications somehow kept the cancer off mount…
That day in the hospital, my breaks and pain I’d forgotten,
Felt ashamed for a change, of the impassive words I’d spoken,
Of my quaint little troubles and all the cribbing I thought,
And couldn’t imagine the pain with which she must’ve fought,
I felt sorry for all my misdeeds to that day,
Thought for my mistakes I needed to pay,
A new friendship with her I looked to start,
To learn from a lady with a lion’s heart,
How glad at the moment I had felt,
In words I am sure couldn’t be spelt…
So the next day a bouquet in hand I reached her room only to find it empty,
Distressed, I asked the sentry,
Who had news but only the worst,
Fond he seemed of her as in tears he burst,
And said that the fine young lady had last night in her sleep,
Passed on to the other side leaving us mortals to weep,
I joined her dear ones in another room,
Among strangers, I still felt comforted in my gloom,
Just a day and her loss was for me a shock,
I couldn’t even wonder how much their world she had rocked…
For that person who in a few brief moments had touched,
My life so deep, so rugged, so abrupt,
Involuntarily my eyes seemed to shed a tear,
One I had never shed for anyone, distant nor dear…
