THE SWEET, LITTLE PERCEPTION

A pretty old lady lived in
a pretty old house.
There too lived
a sweet little mouse.

In the shady, wooden house
with a window reflecting the shadow
of the pale light,
every night the lady left
some supper before
falling asleep tight.

In a few beginning days
she threw the left loaf
but after some nights
there was no need to do so.

Again that night, like the other days,
she felt asleep leaving some food in the tray.
When got up in the morning,
the plate was empty and shined
and she assumed she might’ve
finished all the dine.

whilst the next night she did not sleep
it was her husband’s death anniversary.
Leaving the food again,
she closed her eyes in deep thought
assuming the lady is asleep,
the sweet little mouse on her head hopped.

She saw the little tail on her head
screaming fiercely at the sight of the
brown hairy edge,
she took a broom as the mouse jumped down
slained the sweet little mouse
with a stain on the ground.

Then she called the men
to take the old little mouse off
and narrated how every night the mouse
stole her food off.

The men, disapproved and disgusted
of the sweet little mouse,
ignoring the poor untidy condition of the house
and how she waisted the food
that deserved many mouths.

The men simply thanked the lady
for the ominous plague to settle
that may have caused by the little creature
fluently in her dusty kennel.

And, I spent my whole night
thinking my brains out
who was to be summoned
and who was to be saved out.

Until, I finally realized,
that from years it was the very perception
that we didn’t think about!!

P.S.

We often give meanings to things being completely oblivious of its true stature. We often forget that the things are just things and it’s us who make them right or wrong. Just like the poem suggests, there is no clear evdence by the poet that the mouse every night ate her leftovers, yet the lady “assumes” it and kills it, the men do not blame the lady’s poor untidy condition of the house which served as a breeding ground for various diseases yet they “assume” the mouse to have caused the plague and thank the lady for killing it save their city from an ominous epidemic, etc. Therefore, we too in our lives make this massive mistake of “assuming” the things as right or wrong unknowing their pure nature!

-AASHI KULSHRESTHA