a tainted childhood

AUTHOR: Saanvi

EDITOR: Shu

It started in sets of three. 

When father went to the store— 3 ice creams. 

When mother went shopping for clothes— 3 pairs of jeans

When grabbing for the TV remote— 3 pairs of hands. 

She, the third, is intertwined in every memory. 

Every seed, every grain. 

Every time they reap what they sowed, they see her again. 

And it hurts to think of it  now, because nothing is the same. 

A tainted life, because they had to let go of you so soon; you were still meant to be fed out of your mother’s hands, held in your father’s arms. 

A tainted life, because one day they’ll have lived longer without than they had with the person who made them who they are. 

A tainted childhood, because they cannot think of those days without thinking of how finely you were threaded into it too. 

A tainted childhood, because what started in sets of three, now ends with just pairs of two.