THE CHILD IN ME

I trust the boy within me.

I find endearing, absorbing

His impishness

His pranks

A child is like a tender flower

Swayed by the gentle breeze

Delicate

Toddlers feet and

Crawl

Are like a native village pining

To redeem the land’s debt

A child eats clay

Rubs it like sandalwood paste

Melts at a touch

Laughs blissfully

His wadding gait

Is in itself

A work of art

When I talk to myself

About the nectar

My earliest bowl of 

Milk was

About the love that mother

Taught me as it flowed through

Her milk

About the sorrows and the joys of the world

Then

It  is this child within me

Who moves inside

A churning-stick his hand.

*** 

[Translated from Telugu by Dr. Y. Satyanarayana from the volume Sarihaddu Reekha (Nov.2002) ; poem titled : Pilladu (P.9) ]