On the days,
they would come with glistening eyes.
Carry us around
with child like laughter
and rejoice in our excitement.
But nights
were never so kind.
Nights came with shudders –
each sound a cause for fear.
Counting the ones that lay
and the ones that stayed.
Some nights
snakes sprawled the ground
and others – thunder and rain pattered down
streams gently passing by
under their sleeping bodies –
a reminder – they were alive.
Yet the dawns were the scariest –
awoke with distant cries.
the night shattering with tears and pain –
and they could only hope
that it was not one of their own.
Vellai Curtains 