Tracks of Childhood | Mahima Kapoor

I can vividly recall the hum of the trains passing by 
As we pretended to sleep in the ‘other’ room, 
After a long time away from the grown-ups who had 
Asked us to “be quiet and sleep now” but themselves 
Kept up a humdrum of a conversation that we could 
Only catch incomprehensible snippets of, and we waited 
For the cousins younger than even you and I to fall asleep, 
So that we, the “older” ones, could resume our tête-à-tête 
About boys and other things that we now had the privilege 
Of knowing enough about to be able to hold a discussion over 
Them, and as the night grew more and more eerily silent, we 
Tried to stop ourselves from dissolving into a fit of giggles, 
But oh how could we help ourselves when it was all so amusing 
And so pleasant, and just before the sun peeked from behind 
The curtains separating us from the entire world outside, 
We fell asleep, every fiber of our beings reverberating 
The contentment we carried within us as we laid there 
Sprawled in a small space, limbs carelessly entwining 
With each others, and oh, how naïve we were to think 
That life would always be as simple as those nights spent 
Enveloped in a sense of ease, wrapped in infallible tranquility.

Indian Review | Literature, Poetry and Art Magazine | Author | Mahima Kapoor writes for Indian Review. Read and share the joy of literature

Mahima Kapoor is a student of English Literature from India, a self-professed poet with a forth-coming publication in Mulberry Forks Review. She is socially awkward, an avid reader, and a player of words, and thinks that that’s a wonderful amalgamation to be found in a human