Children’s Day Special: Lockdown Poem by Jerry Pinto

It’s just a one-room kitchen in a chawl.

Family members? Five in all.

Pa and Ma and my two sisters

Who can be cute but often are blisters

And with the virus in the city

Everyone’s home and that’s a pity

Because things can get a little cramped

Our spirits can get a little damped.

So when I want some space I look

Into the pages of a book.

For ever since I met Br’er Rabbit

I’ve developed a serious reading habit.

I went with Cinderella to the ball

And howled at the Moon with the blue jackal.

With Rudyard Kipling, I lived through blizzards.

With Harry Potter, I fought dark wizards.

With Roald Dahl, I encountered witches.

Gerald Durrell kept me in stitches.

Fools sometimes cast me a look

And ask: What can you do with a book?

What can you do with a book?

What can’t you do with a book?

I can dream up computers like Charles Babbage.

I can learn from a farmer how to grow cabbage.

I can join a space mission and go to Mars.

Or just fly there with my superpowers.

I can hunt with lions, I can fly with bees.

I can learn to cook from old recipes.

And once a book’s over, once it’s been read.

I can still find bits inside my head.

So I don’t need a home that’s big and grand

So long as a book is close to hand.

(Jerry Pinto is a Mumbai-based writer)