The baby cries a cry of hunger
A cry that vanishes into the night
The mother ignores her blood calling out
and the father doesn’t hear at all
The child who’s playing with himself
looks up and walks to the cradle
with fatherly eyes he looks at
the bundle of flesh
and says, “Don’t cry…
out of all your companions
good and bad
hunger will be the most faithful
so put it out of your stomach
and into your heart
That’s the way you’ll have to live and survive”
The baby looks hard with wizened eyes
then closes them
and with a pained face
enters the world of nod
its only world of plenty
But it has already learnt its
first
lesson of life…

© Sunil Rajguru