The Little Neighbourhood Child

There’s a neighbourhood child
Ever ready with train of queries
What’s this, what’s that?
Why this, why that?
Oft she comes and finding me reading
Spreads her blank pages
Of ‘how’ and ‘why’

She seeks to record
Some hidden treasures
Like a white dove
Pecking at tiny thoughts
Like a fire-fly
With fiery feathers
Her sense of wonder
Is like the blue ocean.

Just colours to cover
The naked sky
Just dew to wrap
The delicate flowers at dawn
She likes to chirp and twitter,
Or write with sketch-pens
She draws lines and strange shapes
Of some better world
She roams in dreams.

Can’t read yet but makes sounds
Repeats confidently the phrases heard
Pretends to be a bird
Sings songs with great intensity
Walks not but hops
As if an invisible spring
Is attached to her flowery slippers

She hasn’t yet seen school
Watches Doraemon with admiring eyes
With a tiny mouth wide open
And eyes unblinking
Tries to grasp some sense
And abundant mischiefs
Keep glittering on her face
Like a diamond necklace

Marriage celebrations attract her
Imitates secretly her mother
With lovely eyes wherever she looks
Love is born in hearts!
Her laughter is like the rustling of leaves
Or speedy turning of pages
Or a kite in flight

She’s like a baby sparrow
Getting ready for flight
Innocence is her beauty
And curiosity her wings
May the air be kind to her!
May her feathers be true friends!
May the Almighty Creator bestow upon her
Infinite reasons to smile…