A LOST LOVE

A lost love
P K Routray

“Without seeing the face,
the beauty of a girl you can trace,
by observing the beauty of the little finger of her toe,”
the challenge one of our school mates did throw.
We some friends found out some leisure,
and stood in ambush to look at the toes of the girls with pleasure.
The path was for the students going to the girls’ school,
we, from boys’ school waited for the experiment staying patient and cool.
The inference result was secondary for me, which my friends may tell,
but I remember a toe to which my heart simply fell.
I still remember after fifty years the thrill unique and true,
today I cannot paint them with that teen ager’s emotions for you.
I could not see the face under toe’s spell,
I knew the whereabouts of the girl from a knowledgeable friends’ tale.
She was my batch mate and topper of that school,
Then extra interest and effort were put forth by me on her as my heart then she did rule.
After the school we came to a college,
She became my class mate increasing my one-sided bondage.
To figure high in her esteem I got motivated to do extra thing,
to prosper in study and sports so that her attention to me I would bring.
My adviser friends seemed to observe her gesture and posture,
passed her each inkling with friends’ inference and spice to my pleasure.
But Alas! One day she ran away with her lover,
putting an end to my love and friends’ lies and for me their romantic rumor.
Today the grey haired balding friends do remember,
and express their sympathy for me with crocodile tear.
This is my love story fifty years back,
please keep it secret between you and me or to me my dear wife will sack.