Smother your pensiveness, veil your anxiety,
Take long, deep looks, shut your eyes in prayer.
Wish you were King Canute,
And command the tremor to stay.
Smooth the wrinkles with your hand,
Caress, care, counsel, make amends.

Dazzle the interstices with photos, calls, plans,
Mend the broken spaces that they leave behind.

Banish the trepidation,
Await with anticipation,
For the next glimpse of these lined faces,
For the next opportunity to cradle these frail hands.

Author : Reema Sen

Reema Sen lives in Bhopal, India, but likes to assert that her heart and soul reside in Calcutta, the city where she was born, and where she spent the first 30 years of her life. She teaches English in a local high school and is also the coordinator of the school library. A thirst for new experiences is the driving force of her life; she quenches that thirst through reading and traveling. Reema’s writing is inspired by her immediate experiences and is rooted in the daily life that she lives.