THOSE DAYS
You can take all the rusting gold I secreted away,
for those monsoons until childhood slipped away;
those petrichor smells, flooded lanes,
and paper-boats that floated away;
those long power-cuts, roof-top cots,
and sultry summer nights chatted away;
those last-row wooden-benches we fought for,
and the whispers when teachers looked away;
those childhood vows of togetherness, JJ,
and the smiling faces that have faded away.
—from Rattle #73, Fall 2021
Tribute to Indian Poets
__________
Jinendra Jain: “I am studying for an MA in Creative Writing at Lasalle College of the Arts Singapore, a degree conferred by Goldsmiths, University of London. A retired banker, I have worked in various trading and risk management roles for twenty-five years, after graduating from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. I grew up in India, listening to the ghazals that inspire my nascent poetry practice, in theme as well as form. This poem draws inspiration from the opening stanza of Sudarshan Fakir’s popular nazm: ye daulat bhi le lo ye shohrat bhi le lo.” (web)
