The Peepal Tree (From ‘The Horror of Mind)
Something that I loved,
people were scared of that,
Guess what it is,
it’s neither a snake nor a rat.
Why everyone is scared of you,
the question that I often asked,
but it did not reply,
because it was silent and masked.
Every evening I went,
and hung out with it,
and shared my thoughts,
even in shoes without socks.
Everyone stopped me,
from going there,
but I never listened to them,
and it was like someone who always took my care.
One day I saw my father there,
standing on my favorite spot,
but who was the person then,
whose ashes I carried in the pot.
I ran to my house,
as fast as I could,
and told the incident to mother,
but she beat me with a piece of wood.
She always warned me,
to never go near that tree,
but I never listened to her,
and went there like it’s my hive and Iam it’s bee.
After digging some mines,
I got to know that it’s the same tree,
where my father was hanged,
because he was against the religion separating lines.
From that day,
I stopped going near that Peepal tree,
and the same night saw my mother,
crying and giving it some kind of bree………
A hauntingly beautiful poem blending innocence with tragedy. The Peepal tree becomes a silent witness to pain, love, and truth. Emotionally rich and deeply thought-provoking.