My First,My Last, My Everything

I hate to break the chronological order. I hate to break all patterns. But then it was extremely necessary. Just couldn't write prose today. Being a poet for 9 years makes you only think in terms of poetry. The last time I wrote prose it was a play in class 8th.

As I have established by now that my love for all was equal. But then I was human too. I too had my favorites. One day we went to the zoo. People expected me to be happy seeing the monkeys and the lions but then I stared at the tortoise instead. I watched him as he slowly made his way around. How he covered himself in his shell. Something I would become an expert in the forthcoming years of my life.

I heard one of the fellow visitors say," Do you know that tortoises have the largest life span among all animals". I looked to Dad with a dazed look. He replied smiling,"They live the longest". I said I wanted to live for long too. Though I didn’t know at that nascent stage of my life what exactly did ‘living’ and ‘longest’ mean, but now when I look back I think there wouldn’t have been a more apt statement I could have made. I didn't tell him the reason I wanted the longevity for at that time. I couldn’t have known myself. Though I am curious what would have been my reply had this question been put forth. I know the reason now-I wanted as much time as possible to fulfill my purpose in life.

A few years after that incident our teacher asked us to write something about an animal we admired. People started thinking how to write and which animal to write about. But I just had old memories flashing across my mind. I did not think how to write. It just came naturally to me. Words got concatenated themselves. Thoughts came in perfect flow. It was like I had been doing this all my life. I just sat there and gazed at the ceiling.

My friend then shook me telling that school was over and we had to leave. We reached the school gate but had missed the bus. My friend was angry at me but I just smiled. I had found my first Love-writing poetry. That day I just went back home and sat in my favourite corner. Not watching the TV for a change but writing something. And this is what I came up with after half an hour-MY FIRST POEM written at the age of 12.

Here it goes:

The Slow But Steady Tortoise

The tortoise is the animal I greatly admire

As it has all the qualities wise men require

It is slow but steady

And always seems to be ready

It protects itself from everything

And seems to be extremely cunning

Although it may have a daunting task to face

It always succeeds in winning the race

Though it is sluggish but never late

It always decides its own fate

Although its use to us is very minute

It is truly worthy of our salute

It can teach something to each one of us

And those things we must learn without much fuss

Accept my salute, O dear friend

And always continue to live in this trend