FRESHENERS
Dr. R. Rabindranath Menon
Memory’s
the freshener for life when we find
the pillars
cracking, its magnificent dome
threatened,
and death is nearer than birth.
Perhaps
even otherwise. Experiences sore
visit us,
then past recollections score
a victory
over glooms all to bring sunshine.
Laughter
from the past serves as anodyne.
Mind’s
miracle-mirrors turning towards the rear
unwind
tensions in the fore. Sense and savour
the past,
good things learn to remember,
and train
the brain to unlock the right chamber
where a sad
life too has something to treasure.
The
present, even more than the heady past
too
involved with the heat, smell and taste,
be tranquil
enough to sieve out the very best
for life’s
somber situations where it is recast,
and an
anchor is called for to pass the test
Fancy,
another pivot of life, shouldn’t often
feed on the
fatuous, for it can then soften
the
thought-cells to a mania’s level;
memory is
but reality’s belated revel.
facts blaze
a trail in the human heart,
fancy might
push a heavily loaded cart.
These
fresheners are useful even while
sunshine
bathes our life in a smile.
It
heightens, compares, even contrasts
the bygones
with the current repasts.
As we grow
old, faith lits up the sea-shore,
and Life’s
river, seeing the destination, no more
sullied or
sore, and there in the quiet stance,
happy
memories could regale with a star-dance.
a wee wind
towards the sizzling past still
leads the
peaceful mind for a quiet refill.