FRESHENERS
Dr. R. Rabindranath Menon
Memory’s the freshener for life when we find
the pillars developing cracks, the magnificent dome
threatened, and death is nearer than birth.
Perhaps even otherwise. When experience sore
visit us, recollections from the past score
a victory over the pall of gloom to bring sunshine.
Laughter from the past serves as anodyne.
Mind’s miracle-minor turning towards the rear
unwinds 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 event too has something to treasure.
The present, even more than the heady past
too involved with the heat, smell and taste,
is tranquil enough to sieve out the very best
for life’s somber situations where it is recast
as an anchor whence to drink the toast.
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.