The Nightingale girl (A fictional narrative poetry)

A melancholy song, she was about to sing;

She was about to sing of her solitude.

But do not confuse, she was all alone, ‘cos that’s not why I mention solitude.

And do not think she was miserable too, hearing of that melancholy song.

For, alone she was is just a myth,

She always lived with a crowd around.

And miserable too, she had never been,

She just got it for her, of all her wants.

But there was a pain, her voice just bore,

And that pain made her a star.

She sang of ‘grief’, sometimes ‘separation’,

And she even sang of the ‘World War’.

There was a rhythm in air- when she sang,

and the songs were still of pain.

It always looked like, there’s some truth in her voice;

teary eyed,  she tried to refrain.

She was paid for the pain, as much as she could bring,

but her emotions never seemed fake.

Everyone knew the Nightingale girl, her life’s fulfilled- they would think.

But no passerby, deep looked in her eyes, no one asked her what made her awake.

Awake when everyone was lost in their dreams,

she would hold a photograph and weep .

Every day she sang, those heart-wrenching songs,

The photograph, in mind- she would keep.

Who was in the picture, a question you’ll ask,

I must tell you it was her family.

Long was the life she had to live,

but together , it had been a small journey.

She lost them all, at a tender age,

they died in the War, in front of her.

Every day she regretted, her hiding behind the bushes,

and thought, how cold she had been, that summer.

Better it was, to be together in heaven,

than to die inside every day, still smile!

She had that all , every day in mind,

And the palace-like home, felt like exile.

She could not recover, though years had passed;

and there were years which would still pass by.

Till someone comes, who could kill the pain,

and without regrets , makes her look to the sky.

Of all the things she bore inside,

made her the Nightingale of the Land.

But of all the fame, and the name she had,

to her still was like the deserts and sand.

But God loved her smile,

and it was long back he saw her do that,

so it was time now to end up her grieves.

And the pangs of sorrows, she was always hit by, would no longer make her sad.

And one day, God sent him,

Him , who would just understand;

the unspoken words, the regrets deep-down ,

he would mend everything with a magic wand.

The wand was of empathy,

It was made of pure heart,

He became a snake vendor for her,

on the first part.

Amused she would be,

was something not to think.

For, she stared with anger,

her eyes-she was not to blink.

And so he became a clown,

and painted his nose red.

And he juggled plates and knifes,

riding a bicycle, and jokes he said.

Long was his show,

but she would not smile,

And when he fell and plates broke,

that’s when she blinked her eyes.

He got up again, he again started things,

brought a monkey, became a Santa Claus ,

but nothing worked- ‘all in vain’, he thought.

She then ran upstairs without a pause.

And he stuck a look, on the picture hung,

that she’d been gazing all the while.

He just understood, she’d lost them all,

and that’s why the Nightingale refrained to smile.

Now he also ran upstairs, her hands he held,

and asked her to come to the terrace for some time.

He told, he had known, the secret of her melancholy;

and why it sounded so real all the time.

Pointing out towards the sky, he told he never had anyone he could fear to lose.

He was an infant found under a tree, by a priest.

And the Church was a place he grew old.

And said ,“separation is an inseparable part, and it always exists.”

“But sheading those precious tears,

cannot bring them down from heaven.

Rather, if they  would see you from there,

they wouldn’t be at peace, looking at your life- painfully woven.”

“So, smile”, he said, ”and they would find peace”,

“For separation is a part that wouldn’t cease to exist”.

And then she smiled, and the heaven smiled along,

And said , “I’ll smile for them every day, this smile I’ll never resist”.

And he said, “I had nothing I could fear to lose”,

And said “ today I fear to lose this smile, and the one who beholds it, forever.

 Will you cross the puddles , and oceans of life with me..?

And we will smile for the heaven together.”

And she said ,” Yes”, now with tears of joy;

and saw the crowd gathered outside her house.

Everyone cried with joy ,as the Nightingale smiled,

every stone, the flowers, even that caged mouse.