Ice block sold here

‘Ice block sold here’,

Marks the gate,

Red and black with spikes on the fence,

Scared men away,

Good thing I’m not a man then.

‘Ice block sold here’

I saw everyday,

As I went into the gate,

He wore green bathroom slippers the first day,

Green repulsed me but not today.

‘Ice block sold here’

We said unison,

Whenever people passed by the gate.

We echoed rather than said with our lips,

The real words were spoken with our eyes.

‘Ice block sold here’

I thought of every night before I slept.

Then the words in his eyes played,

Good thing we had 700 days to speak,

Because on day 701 I left

‘Ice block sold here’

I knocked on the gate after seven years,

And for the first time our lips spoke plain words.

Age had not done him well.

“Two bags please.”

“Okay.” he replied.

‘Ice block sold here’

The sign was gone by the next day,

And heartbreakingly so was he.

This time, two gates away,

On a dull blue gate.

‘Ice block sold here’

For the first time in all those years,

I saw those words for what they really were,

And I realised that in my house,

We always had light.

                                                 - JACK, C.I

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