the night watchman

This is a poem I had written 4 years ago in std 9.

The Night Watchman

The night had passed half and more,
I awake and doing my task,
I heard that shrill whistle,
It sounded more and more.

I talk here of that man,
Who’s sleep has been hampered for years at stretch;
His face shrivelled, those eyes bulged;
A distorted image in a khaki dress,
And a cycle with a thick fat stick,
And yet my neighbour said-“I heard you not”!

And there death brought quietness all around,
I at my desk and doing my task;
And thieves away with that shrill whistle,
And passes the Night Watchman-
A distorted image in a khaki dress,
And a cycle , perhaps, second hand,
With a thick fat stick,
And sadly neighbour said-“I heard you not”!!

All mothers and fathers and sons and daughters,
Slept with peace and free of tension,
No thief dared, for burglars feared-
That shrill sound which I heard.
The distorted man in a khaki dress
Passed and saluted me.
And morning next I saw him again
-Come to my neighbour’s house,
When all were awake
And all were safe and nothing was gone-
Came a distorted man in a khaki dress,
With a cycle, perhaps, second hand,
And a thick, fat bamboo stick,
To ask his money for-
His shrill whistles and his duty and his hampered nights’sleep;
And my tension free neighbour, lost in slumber at night,
Cruelly and sadly said-
“ I heard you not”!!!