Megha Sood (Children's World)

Megha Sood

Lizard On the Wall

 

It sits there patiently on the cold ceiling of my favorite room

hampering serenity on a cool summer afternoon.

 

Moving with just a hint, a wiggle, or a shortfall and can come sliding

next to me before I can catch my breath at all.

 

A nightmare I can count incessantly on spindly kid fingers of mine

It keeps me on my toe every time I look at it from the corner of my eye.

 

It can’t do anything to you, my mother declares loudly

But every time my scared face was enough for me.

 

A fleeting glance at that sticky slimy dreaded figure

That forces me to change rooms in a blink of an eye.

 

 

How to Keep the Child Alive?

I keep the child alive in me by looking at the flaming petunia in my courtyard

Simplicity of these petals soaking up the apricity of the sun and giving it all back to us.

The laughing lines on my face catch the sun and store the lessons of life dispensed by our elders for so long.

Simplicity is the epitome of perfection and we are imperfect creatures training to pave our path. Carving a path for those who follow us.

Blessed with the warm apricity of the sun holding a radiant yet solemn look.

Change is like a necessary transformation in our lives. If you do not embrace change you stagnate like the deep stench reeking from the sluices.

Change is what keeps us going. Change is what we need. Change is what we want. Ask a child, ask a butterfly.

 

 

Bio Note: Megha Sood

Megha Sood is an Award-winning Asian American Poet, Editor, Blogger, and Literary Activist from New Jersey, USA. Recipient of the 2021 Poet Fellowship from MVICW (Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creating Writing) and National Level Winner for the  2020 Poetry Matters Project. Poetry Editor Literary Journals Mookychick (UK), Associate-Editor BrownStone Poets, USA, and Literary Partner with “Life in Quarantine”, Stanford University. Author of Chapbook (“My Body is Not an Apology”, Finishing Line Press, 2021) and Full Length (“My Body Lives Like a Threat”, FlowerSongPress, 2022). She blogs at https://meghasworldsite.wordpress.com/ and tweets at @meghasood16.

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Setu, December 2022 :: Children's World 2023