My grandparents’ closet is littered with boxes of old things
That once belonged to my parents
My grandmother has a box
Filled with dolls
Dirty, broken dolls
That were once whole
Friends for my mother
My mother was once a little girl
Who liked to act out stories from her books with her dolls
Who talked a little too much with her friends in class
Who was excited to get a 100 on her history test
Just like me
My grandparents have a box
Of family photos and old report cards
My father was once a little boy
Who fought with his little brother over toys
Who struggled with the same math equations I struggle with now
Who stayed out late playing with his friends
Just like me
In the last 14 years of my life,
As I grew up
I have watched my parents grow up too
Screams of joy that echoed down the halls of their childhood homes
Now echo down the halls of my house
Screams of laughter and scolding for my brother and I for running in the house
And to do our homework, and to stop playing with our toys
The little children grew up, and learned to raise children of their own
And as we grew older, our parents grew older too
Medicine bottles on the kitchen table multiplied
The creak of the stairs as they walk has gotten slower
There are more wrinkles lining their mouths
A polaroid of jokes and laughing fits
And lining their foreheads
A record of worries and wonder
New gray hairs sprout every day
Though I did not notice until their heads gleamed silver
Groans of aches and pains that
Echo down the halls of my house
One day those echos may die out
And these halls will fall silent
As my brother and I are no longer there
And my parents have grown too old
So I will gather the medicine bottles
Photograph the wrinkles and gray hairs
Record the aches and pains
Along with the boxes in my grandparents’ closet
Of old photos and dolls
And I will put them in a display case
To cherish as these halls still roar and clamor
Until it becomes still
Image courtesy: Pixabay
Adrita Chowdhury is a 14 year old rising Sophomore. She is an enthusiastic student of Kathak and Rabindrasangeet...who spends her free time reading and playing the flute.
