Life

a poem by Mary Mathew

When I saw a beautiful cloth in front of me,
The child in me was awake.
I started to play with it- a game
That I didn’t know until then.

I felt like drawing on it my dreams,
Dreams that took the form of an abstract nature.
Soon I became bored with it
And wanted to throw it away.

But when I remembered the happiness
It gave me in those blissful days,
I held on it as if it were my destiny.
Necessity became the only purpose of its existence.
When I was in grief, it wiped my tears away.
In my joy, I waved it to my friends.

Years went swiftly like a disloyal lover.
Yet the cloth remained with me,
One day when I unfolded it,
The colours of my youth had faded away.
Times that withered me had withered it as well.

Then I realised my folly in life
As I fought my inner strife.
My thoughts flew to that innocent age
When my dreams were no longer in a cage.
Now I shall draw the dream that was my life.