CALCUTTA ’94

Darryl Earle

Passed me by she did,

Our eyes fixed;

On a Calcutta street

I walked on.

Then within

Glimpsed

My own,

Times that were once,

Good days unending.

Now poor, alone,

No outstretched hand—

Our paths crossed

But for His grace went I.

Then

We paused—

I retraced my steps.

“God Bless you,” I said.

“God Bless you, son;

Like you

I am an Anglo-Indian too!”

Her pride, dignity,

Shone through:

A mother once,

Grandmother,

Mine, yours,

Somebody’s sister.

Why…

A thousand histories hence,

Of our deeds,

Our great ones,

In the future too—

Nothing nurtures the same,

Fulfils,

…as our small giving.

* Calcutta ‘94 won the poetry prize in an international literary contest sponsored by CTR Inc. Publishing. It first appeared in the recently published anthology of Anglo-Indian writing, Voices on the Verandah, and is reprinted here with permission. Darryl Earle was born and raised in Calcutta and was educated in Darjeeling (North Point) and at St. Xavier’s, Calcutta. He taught for a while in Calcutta before emigrating to Toronto, Canada, in 1972. He works as a Teacher-Librarian and is also a consultant and lecturer on children’s literature.

E-mail: cardar@rogers.com