A Child’s Wish

/ Sumana Roy
The Great Banyan Tree at the Botanical Gardens in Howrah

This is my childhood

where I live-

it’s fairly livable

because you have a father

who is the Botanical Garden’s Banyan

always giving you shade-

because you have a mother

who is home,

sweet home to you-

you have a little brother to play with-

you also have a storytelling grandpa

and a pickle expert grandma-

the moon looks like a moon

not like a knight’s buckler-

the hawk-cuckoo sounds like a bird

not like a siren-

and we witness with big open eyes

the birth of a nation;

East Pakistan becoming

Bangladesh-

a Tagore song

becoming their national anthem-

isn’t this world pretty?

I wish to float in this beautiful bubble

of a childhood forever

I hope time will never prick it

sharply-

Posted for my prompt Children at What’s Going On

11 thoughts on “A Child’s Wish”

  1. That tree is magnificent, Sumana. This childhood indeed is blessed and full of wonders. I wish every child had such a childhood. Sigh. A really beautiful poem. I love the story telling grandpa and the pickle expert grandma. Smiles.

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  2. I really enjoyed getting a glimpse of your childhood, Sumana. Your grandparents sound wonderful. It really is nice sometime to look back at these wonderful times, which now seem so much like a dream. Such a pretty and beautiful world! (And that is an amazing Banyan tree!)

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  3. “I wish to float in this beautiful bubble

    of a childhood forever” Ahhhh! May it live within you as well as outside you, dear poet, in the land blessed by Tagore’s song. What a childhood!

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  6. I really enjoyed your child’s wish, Sumana, especially because it’s in a place I’ve never been and will never visit. But I would love to see a Banyan tree. I appreciated my storytelling grandpa too. Yes, I always wished to float in my childhood bubble, but sadly it was pricked by time.

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Thank You :)