BURNT HOUSE

 

BURNT HOUSE

 

 

Remember several decades ago,

I feared the sight of the place,

Blackened in time, broken walls,

Collapsed a portion and the roof,

Outgrowth covered the ground,

Chest high bush and wild creepers,

Feared snakes present poisonous,

It was a dangerous place, hunted,

As a child believed ghosts, present,

Never visit that place after evening,

Found birds used to chirp at night,

There was a beautiful story learned,

Grandmother told, it was beautiful,

An old couple with six sons daughter,

They were rich and living with family,

A few dozen of children women stayed,

Magnificently decorated and crowded,

Prosperous business minted gold,

The old Woman was donating gifts,

Poor people used to gather to collect,

Rice, corn, clothes, and silver coins,

Touching her feet, narrating owes,

She used to listen on a chair patiently,

Loved children were given food, dresses,

The person built a temple, worshipping,

A kind and considerate couple were famous,

People loved them the house visited,

From miles away, people knew the place,

Most favorite place for the poor to powerful,

Grew up their children big established,

Separated and consequently moved away,

Separated, built their houses in time,

Parents their daughter was staying,

A fight erupted for gold property,

Gradual but bitter quarrels to courts,

Crestfallen, the person succumbed,

Mother and daughter were sick,

Looted furniture assets by the sons,

The big mansion was empty and lonely,

Collapsing boundary wall cows grazed,

Thieves visit at odd hours for safety,

Poor and starved helpless women,

Demise was only a grace both quit,

The house was stolen to door windows,

The place had become dilapidated,

A businessman acquired the house,

Converted to a warehouse and stored,

The house was packed with jute bags,

Groceries were stored guard watched,

Fights began between brothers to sell,

Distributing equally the cost of the house,

The businessman emptied grains,

Ignited the house one night heard only,

Nobody could see the culprit desert,

It was the site of a few murders,

Rumors turned into widespread gossip,

Less truth, succulent lies, did color,

Named the big palatial house  hunted,

In our childhood feared the place,

Twilight years once visited the house,

Silently stood I was looking at the walls,

Crumbling, gradually, silence killed,

I imagined the glorious time of the past,

It was whispering families grew up,

Flowed here happiness, love, and care,

Saw greed, envy turned to jealousy,

If resulted to unfounded anger ignited,

The burnt house, time etched a storybook.

 

@ Bijayananda Mishra

Theme: A fiction time tested.