Notice the sheer alchemy in June’s noons
The slanting rays, of the golden Sun, dart through the lattice,
Criss-crossing patterns of oozing sunlight spill.
To watch the beams dance, is indeed, a thrill !
As a beam touches the iron grid of the lattice
Window sills become molten gold, shimmering silently.
My childish gaze is entranced, I hop and squeal to
pick
Fluid golden drops that evade me; oh I lock myself carefully
So no one sees me revel, when I steal pieces of golden sunlight.
And I continue with the little mischief, when no one is likely to see me
Safe in the low rhythmic snoring, I hear through long noon siestas,
Ah, this delicious peek-a-boo! No one knows,
June’s noons find me lunging after bits of precious sunshine.
“Ah quietly, soft, not a sound”, I tell myself
When I stumble; I mumble under my breath, like granny.
How she’d console me, nestling my head in her ample bosom
While jumping hopscotch, if I fell…
What a dreadful moment that is, when my mother finds out what mischief I was upto
And, she arrests me. Her arms swoop like an eagle
Descend upon prey, and, then she takes me
Her fingers pinioning me down, lifting me by the fours….
And rushing into the darkness of her bedroom
In the quietness of the bedroom, lull me to June’s drugged sleep.
Long after…my mind wandered back to that moment
The trellised iron design quickened to life, a magical alchemy.
Were the sunbeams June’s touchstone?
Mumtaz N Khorakiwala
