A GIRL OF EIGHTEEN

I’m a girl of eighteen

In love with my own tune

And my dreams umpteen;

Why do you bother me

With slings of your dry swoon

When I’m in a fling with the sky

And drunk with a wild moon?

I am a girl of eighteen

Envying those rose-cheeked girls

At the college canteen

Trying to flirt with my sweet friend

Who from a fairy land did descend

But now, he my heart does rend

With only tears in my eyes to fend;

I cry under the bower of a silhouette moon

And  hope  to find that real  friend  very soon.

I  ask myself  many ‘whys’ wherever I go:

Driving at night I ask  ‘Why am I afraid

While  crossing   the thoroughfare

Even of persons quite  familiar?

Why am I afraid of my own shadow

While chasing my dreams  lying afar?

Why am I stared  at so long  and stalked

By greedy bees who steal  all colours

From all lovely  flowers?

Questions are many

But answers a few,

I’m still not bothered too much

As I find

My love to be  so fresh and new !

My love of grass, my love of dew

My love of self, my love of the world

And  my love of all  him, her and   you.

Comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi

22/09/14