This Box
©April 25th, 2017
ByVijaya Sundaram
Within the knitted bones of this ageing skull,
Lives a little girl who dreamed her life away.
What she saw with her clear, wide eyes
She transformed into colours, skies
Full of music, full of song.
There were joys and sorrows, fears and rage, but dull
She was not, for all was sharp, and all, a play.
Sometimes, a rafting loneliness
Sometimes, a laughing only-ness,
As she poled her barge along.
She lives amidst the stories and songs in that box.
She longs to break it open, as she knocks and knocks
From within, but all she hears is the still sighing
Of stars, while she keeps her lone vigil, undying.
____________________________________________________________________
Today is Day 25 of NaPoWriMo 2017, and the prompt is about little, secret spaces.
Here’s the prompt:
In 1958, the philosopher/critic Gaston Bachelard wrote a book called The Poetics of Space, about the emotional relationship that people have with particular kinds of spaces – the insides of sea shells, drawers, nooks, and all the various parts of houses. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that explores a small, defined space – it could be your childhood bedroom, or the box where you keep old photos. It could be the inside of a coin purse or the recesses of an umbrella stand. Any space will do – so long as it is small, definite, and meaningful to you.