The Monkey Mind

Kindness of Stranger A beautiful memory, as fresh as the morning lilies swaying by the cool morn; it visits my forgettable mind with unforgeable warmth. Breathing deep in its vivid depth of remembrance, its ordinariness is what makes it remarkable, to me. Both in form as well as in the essence, a brilliant spark of clarity blazing amidst the murky world, it invites recollection in the tranquility of solemn silence. The beginning of this remarkable memory, an ordinary memory, was the end of a fateful another. It was the time when COVID-19 had just retreated from its ruthless sojourn, and its retreat had endowed my reality with a sense of normalcy. Finally, I was set free. Free from the suffocation of four walls, which were meant to protect me. There, I survived dwelling in a perpetual echo chamber of the self, scrolling up and down, the boiled-down version of the daily expiration of lives , desensitized by the rising cold hard numbers. It was simply boredom retiring with a sigh, wh

                                                  In the early morn, at a crowded underground train station, a family of three had found refuge. The ponderous environment coalesced the ancient air which smelled musty, with that of the neoteric tenant, the human smell that wafted from unwashed bodies. The poor light had become a playground where fleeting shadows played hide and seek, with the dim lamps dispersed unevenly on various corners, uninhabited as if awaiting for grim reapers to walk out. " Evermore " *whisper* Under a flickering light... ...foreheads gently met each other, small belonging to a pitifully crying child, and, broader wrinkled in grim worry, to a middle-aged man whom she desperately clung to.  Her small clumsy arms barely encircled his burly neck, yet they refused to let go, as her teary voice incessant with desperation, uttered shiveringly "V ater, geh nicht, Bitte-Bitte-Bitte"   Yet, her squeaky voice weakened to a bare whisper, and unto silenc