It is time to start putting the dates

                                                                               At Stanford, May 2016
I slip time and again
Just when I have everything
Neatly laid out understood
Ready to practice
I am back in the dark
And unknown,
It is time to start putting the dates-
The past will not return
The past does not return and
It does not excite
To visit the place once lived in
To meet those built into life
As one’s own,
It is time to start forgetting-
A game of association
As a child we played
A game of Places, Names and Things
All for an alphabet
I am reminded with a word 335E
Atish-Anish and their love of chess,
It is time not to think-
Getting into the bus and going far
Not for the trophies
Already won, ready to be thrown
But for the game
The years and the days
Of three childhood,
It is a number I see every morning-
As I turn into my office building
And where many a times
My children walked
For a ride back home
Split into many now
That we have all grown,
And some old.