Aftab Tariq (Kashmir)

How sweet were the days,

When I was rejoicing in the Lap of nature,

Like Wanton boys,

Then I suddenly saw a falling leaf.

Which had i seen, blooming, marring.

Before its detachment,

From the tree,

Made me sad

Stepped ahead,

The leaf kept saying “

"Life is nothing but a few days to bloom, to live for other, to make them a smile”

 I left the place, but its last moans kept me haunting, 

Suddenly, saw a chap with bushy whiskers,

With blonde hair in keen eyes,

An athletic decorum, busy in the field.

As his age was never going to fade.

left him there, came back to home......!

Days gone by,

so as the years.

A man met me with a shaggy beard.

"Who are you….? I just whispered,  with a deep smile, he replied, :

"I am the one who was playing in the field,

Have seen you there when you were spectator,

Watching my bowling and applauding,

now have grown old with the passage of time".

Oh! I remembered the words of that dying leaf….

“Life in nothing, but a few days to bloom,

To live for others, to make them Smile”