What is trash? What is treasure?

Can there be any standard measure?

Is it a state of mind or a beat of the heart?

Or a perception that has no delineated end or start?

Trapped in the labyrinth of questions galore,

She scuttled around aimlessly, consternation seeped into her every pore.

The priceless moments suddenly seemed too expensive a price she had paid,

The once soothing smile pierced through her like a serrated blade.

She stared at him in angst, even as he smiled back from within the frame;

As if mocking her trust which could never see through his game.

She trudged wearily towards the wall to closely gaze at the criminal she now had to expose,

What was a treasured collage of memories was now the trash she couldn’t wait to dispose.

One moment treasure, one moment trash,

One moment fire, one moment ash.

It is in the state of mind and the beat of the heart,

A perception that has no delineated end or start.

Author’s Note: Life is all about perspectives and perceptions.  And these  are never  constant. They change with changing situations. They change as we change. A few days back, I returned home after a 15-day-long trip only to find that the containers with pulses had got some insects inside them. We had to unfortunately discard all of it. However, when the house-keeping staff of my apartment complex came to collect our trash, she was trying to take out the pulses from the trash can because she thought she could use it for her home. This broke my heart. My husband and I asked her not to use the disposed Dal as it was spoilt and gave her fresh Dal instead for consumption. It pricked me how what was trash for us was a treasure for her. And that is what sowed the seeds for writing this piece in my head. Because, after all, it’s our circumstances which determine the value of anything in our lives.

//This poem was published on Momspresso and is available at the following link.