Gaurav Gurung

The Street Urchin

Ragged, bruised, dirty- yet a happy small boy,

Roams around the streets of this wretched town

He’s a small bundle of misery with a bit of subdued joy,

He greets but he’s met with an unsolicited frown.

 

The town folks are irritated by his situational ploy,

He has no one in this world he could claim as his own

But he has all the sands of this Mother Earth to enjoy,

Why is his life like this? He hasn’t even a sin to atone.

 

He talks to a girl although, his only ray of hope,

Her name he doesn’t know but knows she sweeps,

She drives him forward in life’s steep slope,

But today while playing- she doesn’t smile, she weeps.

 

She says with teary eyes and a broken smile,

“My father has set my marriage with a washer man”,

It was hard to comprehend; he stood there confused for a while

“Would she run away with me?” but quickly discarded his plan

 

For what could he provide her with? He hadn’t even wealth,

Love can never be sufficient for he didn’t even know if it was love,

He knew he couldn’t even provide meds for her health,

So he let her go, he let her fly in the sky as a free dove.

 

He attended her wedding for afar with a cold heart,

He wanted to cry but his tears were adamant in his eyes,

He knew it was over- they were forever apart,

“She was just a friend, I wasn’t even in love” coping with lies

But letting her go wasn’t easy- it burned,

He packed his things, and took pain as his prize.

 

He moved on from the place, never returned,

To a new nest, with no answers or goodbyes.