'Mr. Scarecrow'

~ Dedicated to The Sisters ~


Mr. Scarecrow, how you stand there smiling!
Like a silent sentinel seeing all,
sparing both your watchful eyes,
you gaze, as if in a reverie or into a memory,
at the seedlings playing in the wind.
How they danced, and how your feeble arms
attempted to caress them,
but they being elusive and swift evaded you.

Mr. Scarecrow, how you smile
clad in the tattered clothes of the young
standing forever under the sun.
You've seen too many summers
and stood too many winters;
you've suffered the young crows
mocking at you simply because
you cannot do a thing about it.

Mr. Scarecrow, how do you smile?
Sitting in the backseat
of my parents' Honda City,
preoccupied with my cellphone
and the lack of internet services,
and devoutly moping about the foreverness
I am forced to sit, immobilised,
I manage but a glance at you
and in that moment,
        I thought of grandmother waiting by the front door
        for us to drive up outside the gate,
        silently, patiently,
        clad in tattered clothes,
        a tray of hot perfectly-made tasteless cookies in hand.
Mr. Scarecrow,
I know now how you smile.



16/02/16

Poet's Notes

I remember clearly a poem that never got written when I was still conducting the Poetry Club as an activity in my school: 'Mr. Scarecrow.' The idea had come across one of the members as she was travelling past a large field and spotted a lone scarecrow. She had asked for advice on how to approach the subject of sympathising with a lone scarecrow through poetry, but we never got around to completing what little of the first draft she had. A year later and the subject to me became a metaphor for something a lot more dear than a lone scarecrow, as a tragedy can open one's eyes: you don't know what you have until it's gone.

As this being the first proper free verse poem on this site (and the first actual completely free versed poem I wrote), it was an experience indeed, as it made me consider creating patterns in a non-structural way; a clear example of this would be the repetition of "Mr. Scarecrow" throughout the poem. I have never appreciated free verse poetry as much as I do regulated and structured poetry as "free verse" is often an excuse for people to write without meaning yet call it 'poetry.' Nonetheless, I wanted to try my take on it to see how it would turn out. Result: I'm quite pleased, and I hope you enjoy it too.