soaking his tired feet in a babbling brook
near his ramshackle shack.
His doting wife cooks a sparse meal for him
on a battered stove. He bursts into song,
the notes fall on every leaf, every bough.
A lone bird on an oak tree outside his shack
keeps vigil. A cinder from the furnace lights up
the cherubic face of a child lying in a frayed
patchwork crib, flailing his limbs, chuckling,
chortling, wanting to be picked up by his mother,
glowing in the muted glow of the stove.
The smug world looks on indifferently.
The father now dashes into the room,
still clinging to the song, picking up the child,
flinging him towards the ceiling,
happily humming the song with a greater vigor.
The mother gasps, but soon smiles
as the father clasps the child to his heart.
Awestruck, I watch the poorest of the poor,
not hurtling to their doom, but happy in their dearth
on the topsy-turvy earth.
The poor family has miraculously survived
another day.
On a fistful of mirth.
Santosh Bakaya, [India] PhD is an internationally acclaimed writer of 31 books cutting across genres. She has written novels, nine books of poetry, and two biographies. Santosh is a columnist, literary critic, creative writing mentor and TEDx speaker. Her TEDx talk on The Myth of Writer's Block is very popular in creative writing circles. Santosh's latest book of poetry is .AT Thirty Minutes Past One [2025].