Shades of Red

The leaves were dancing with the wind And the kid swung the bottle around his neck Marching his way to school with a friend His hands in air, flying off the deck

Little he knew of the color red Felt the itch, and craved to scratch Stood he still and watched instead His body fell, and he gasped

Confused, he saw the color red, But different from pictured garden bed The teacher was wrong, he smiled But stopped as he looked around

Not white but red, turned the bottle he brought Broken it was, and the child with fear Tears rolled as he thought of his mother She had asked, “Not to lose the fifth bottle”

Something bright, was lifting him in arms Down, he saw his mother rushing to school He saw her cry, and his tears rolled too Not sure why, but he felt something too

“Mother, I need a hug”, the kid wept. Mother stumbled as she ran and fell A tear drop was borrowed by wind from the child And carried to the cheeks of his fallen mother

She rubbed her face and felt her boy The kid was lifted to a newer world There he saw another kid, of his age He wept too, and the kid asked why?

“A flying tin, painted me in red and my mother I know not where she is, how she is From mountains these tins come flying They say, it paints red the bad only”

“Are we bad and very bad? I’m confused They never told me in my Madrasa” The kid hugged the other kid and cried, “They never taught me in my school too”.

17th, December 2014