Time

I used to see him sitting alone
on a bench in the society garden,
with his eyes inviting passers-by
to sit beside him for a while
and talk to him…

He might also have talked
nonsense to his sweetheart
for the umpteenth time
in his younger days,
but now in the sunset years,
there is nobody to talk to him
either sense or nonsense…

He still sits there,
but now he has purchased
four plastic chairs
to keep in front of that bench
so that people coming to him
doesn’t feel uncomfortable
while sitting on the iron bench
in this winter season…

And what does this octogenarian
want in return?
Time, yours and mine,
nothing else,
he has enough time,
while others don’t have any…

Time plays truant,
it doesn’t behave
in a manner we like,
time has its own timings
to time all of us,
but time always beckons all of us
to share, to give and get time,
so given by it suitably
from time to time
to maintain a balance
between the two timings…

–Kaushal Kishore