The Balloon Seller~ By Shubhangi Joshi

It was a crowded day
the smell of flowers, candy
wafting in the summer air

Girls with bows in their hair
boys in collared shirts
hands held in reassurance

I saw a child selling balloons
barefoot, tattered clothes
a face wrinkled beyond his years

He was my age
but there was no hand
to hold his in this crowd

I silently watched
as he sold coloured dreams
for a penny a piece

I saw the longing for ice cream
in his young eyes,
as he eyed ice cream cones
held by hundreds of smiling faces

My parents said it's time to go home,
and I followed them,
looking back
every other minute,
as the balloon seller
grew smaller and smaller,
and was finally out of sight

I still wish I had bought him an ice cream.


Author Bio:
No matter she does as her day job, Shubhangi is a passionate poet, guitarist and singer-songwriter. An economics graduate with an MBA in Marketing, she has nurtured her poetry throughout her adolescence up to now. Her poems deal with various themes, ranging from nature, love to the experience of being a woman in Indian society.