Poetry

Prashant Godbole

By

Chetna Joshi Bambroo

Belonging

That one day I was sitting with my dog

And my dog was sitting with me

He was staring at me with his human eyes

And I was looking far into the foggy sky

He told me things

And off and on I listened to his eyes

I spoke into the foggy air

Where I believed my words would travel to the heaven

Where my parents lived

The dog knew nothing or perhaps he did

We sat in one another’s solitude

And uttered our words and

Shared glances

A bird flew by

And we both looked at it

With familiarity

I thought, “If only I had wings,

I would have seen the dog from the highest building.”

And perhaps he, too, did think the same

Or, he did nothing at all

Like many other times, maybe he just said, “goodbye”

Inside his animal heart

Or a human heart

My companion for the evening

Held many secrets

Held many random stories

Somewhere in his ‘oh! so regular’ eyes

I was not one of those

Who liked the mysticism

Or believed in it

So, I walked past him

And went on to look into the mirror

Chetna Joshi Bambroo

I am a freelance journalist, and have worked with national newspaper, Hindustan Times, New Delhi, India for three years and have also worked with children’s publishing houses.