My Mother at Sixty-six

                                      Kamala Dad 

  Driving from my parents's home to Cochin 

  last Friday morning, I saw my mother,

  beside me,

  

  doze, open mouthed, her face ashen like 

  that 

  of a corpse and realised with pain 

  that she thought away, and looked but soon

  put that thought away, and looked out at 

  young 

  trees sprinting, the merry children spilling 

  out of their homes, but after the airport's

  security check, standing a few yards away,

  I looked again at her, was, pale 

  as a late winter's moon and felt that old 

  familiar ache, my childhood's fear,

  but all  I said was, see you soon, 

  Amma,

  all I did was smile and smile and smile......