Away, away, away,
Went all the castle with a sway,
As the water licked the mud,
I yelled and cried,
But none to hear me,
None to soothe me,
None to grieve me.
And there I stood all alone,
Standing on the shore,
And the castle was no more.

Standing on the mud, I thought,
How much I had done to make it.
Days and weeks beneath the sun,
In the mud, I was the only one…

So much I had adored it,
And my sweat yielded,
For, a heap of sand,
Was now a mansion.
A mansion of my dreams,
The one I always envisaged,
And there it was!
Adorned with all the beauty of the world,
And the glory of the universe.

It stood proudly.
How magnificent it looked,
Tall and sturdy!
And lavishly decorated,
The carvings on its walls,
Etched deep into my dreams,
Touched my heart.
And dressed my lips with a smile.

A smile so elegant, so innocent,
Unaware of the calamities of the sea,
It did not know what was going to be.
And there came the dread of my thought,
Which I had cornered or brushed aside,
For my own pleasure,
Came and robbed me off my treasure.
A treasure so precious,
None would have ever known,
But for me and me alone.

One huge tide came by the night,
And engulfed my castle,
And left me with a fright,
Which was, by now a bitter truth,
My castle was gone like my sister’s boot.

Would it return?
I asked the cosmos.
But it never replied.
And there I fell on the ground,
And buried my face in my hands,
For now my castle was nothing but sand!

As I thought, I realised,
It was not just with me,
But with everybody,
For, as we grow on the sands of time,
We build castles of relations,
Of love and of affection,
Which must be tended with care,
For it was only one tide,
And only one sway,
Which took my whole castle away.