All in the Mind

by Sheila Thadani

The grey pall of sadness

rose like a cloud before my eyes;

I looked to the shaded sun,

shuttering its sunny skies.

Image credit: Claudia Soraya on Unsplash

Time stood still as death.

Thoughts mired in depression,

Time had stopped; Life had

had no meaning, no expression.

I went out  to the wilted flowers,

from water barred; nestled in

the quietness  of bowers,

 perched a grey and red bird.

 Its claws rummaged for food,

unaware of my presence;

Careful not to intrude, my hands

stretched out with crumbs

His beak nibbled to feed.

His warm feathers caressed

my skin softly, two beings

tending to each other's need.

Then he flapped his wings

and flew off into the skies.

The ashen pall of misery's grey

 lifted from my eyes.

The scent of  hope's light

wafted over the green grass

glistening with rain drops

as the sun's gaze fell across.

Did nature wipe my palette

clean of despair; to enjoy

its lush green banquet, with

 creatures that share the earth?

I looked inward to my soul.

Despair changed to calm in

a day, was it God or nature,

or was it  all in the mind?

***

Sheila Thadani

Sheila Thadani is a writer and a poet. She has written a column for Hi-Rise Magazine; her poems have appeared in Wave-Kelp Journal, Tiny Seed Journals and others. She has won prizes for her poems, 'The Moral Abyss', 'Quest for Peace' and 'Weeping Earth'.