Reeti Ghosh
Here I stand, all alone,
At the bank of an endless sea,
Bold and tall
Against the ink black sky,
My lights are shining for all to see!
And for some to follow;
The sailors lost at sea.
I burn all night long;
Do what I was born to do!
The sailors worship me
For I show them their way home!
Then the sun rises and I’m forgotten.
I stand there, desolate, abandoned.
My walls crack with the centuries of burden
Of showing the way to the travellers of the sea.
The sun is up.
They are back home.
My need is gone.
They don’t notice me.
I’m crumbling from within!
Every time my light shines
It leaves another crack in my bricks.
The paints are peeling off,
The light is dimming;
I need to be cared for.
Then one fine day,
Sunlit and gay,
A sailor comes by
For whom I
had shone the way
Before, many a times!
Says he, “Oh mother, let me serve and
Give you the care you deserve!
Love and honor and all things thus
Which in my heart I preserve!”
Says I, “Oh son of mine,
an honor you do me thus!
To seek me out and proffer care,
I thank you with all my heart!
But, alas, for all I’m worth
I cannot accost thy help!
For you, a sailor, the one I guide,
Cannot be the one to tend.”
“Oh mother my,” says he “can’t I
Be any help to thee!”
Says I “Oh son, this visit of your’s
Has been enough help to me.”
“Then what do you seek, oh keeper of seas,
In the one you will accept,
And honor him with your ascent
To redeem the damage made?”
“My dear son, there’s just one trait
That marks the man I seek!
Keeper of earth, he’s firm on land
And never guided by me.”