(a note to Mitsi)
‘The old house is still standing’
I recite, and she asks
‘so why do you have to say it?’
I’ve never been questioned on this,
for the grasses of home were always green-green
even in the driest months
and unkempt seasons
and though the paint was cracked and dry
at times
there was nothing to explicate
home was home,
familiarities don’t come off the walls
like plaster does,
and that’s why my appachchi,
your ‘Polo Aththa’
is firmly defying
his infirmities;
he’s an old house
paint-cracked
but here the grass
is green-green
and will be
as and when
they all,
we all come
to see him.
If cracked paint and green grass could bring a flood of memories to my kids, too: I will consider myself a success at parenting.
ReplyDeleteDear Mr Seneviratne
ReplyDeletelet's celebrate this forthcoming 'Sinhala Hindu New Year' with all our grand parents, with a parent of someone that has forgotten by someone or by everyone ( Elders's homes) with a person that always tried to be a parent to someone of this world. we sometimes use to say about some person/s that we like so much 'he is like a father to me'.'She is like a mother to me' etc let's celebrate all our good achievements with the grand Parents that we have 'forgotten' but 'unforgettable'.
this is a message to all the children of this country that don't have time to visit their grandparents or sometimes do not find some times to visit their grand parents.
have a good day sir!
the old houses generally are full of 'good memories' and full of 'good thoughts'.... the green - green says something important .... one need to maintain something in a very careful manner to sustain up to that level up to the'green - green' standard. 'the green - green' tell us a story of so much 'care and attention' .... if not needless to say that will become 'green - dead'. so the credit goes to the hands that protected the grass from non green things .....
ReplyDeletei suggest we all should paint our old houses using the green - green colour to give those a new and a fresh look.
this is a lovely poem and this remind us of some of the realities of life, the truth of life ....
I ve got the picture of the green grass of my home as my cover page on FB cos that song somehow sung by my older brothers brings the six of us back to that home with peeling plaster and run down looks where i will surely return one day. Will I ? And my ammi lives there at 83 an old house in which the grass is still green when we return… lovely reading this but heartbreaking somehow
ReplyDeleteThere's no green grass for me, as it was in this concrete forest my memories dwell with my ammi - She used to take me to school for full 14 years - and always remember as I pass my school the way she stood at the gate from Sir James Peiris Mawatha until Im not to be seen - at the bend near the Jack tree I'd wave her and go then she took the path - Navam Mawatha to walk to her office once was next to temple trees. But true the memories of her as you said will be green forever.
ReplyDelete