Response to July’s Fourth Week Prompt of Lifeline

I Got You!

a poem about trust

At Lifeline, Sahil Patel has set July’s fourth week prompt, and has invited us to write about Trust, yes, he says:

Write a poem about the experience of trusting or being trusted by another (human, animal, object, potted plant), reflecting on it or telling a tale about it. or the idea of mistrusting them (or not being trusted yourself).

Trust is a very strong feeling, as when you trust someone, or the other way around, there is a feeling of tremendous assurance, you feel at the top of the world, you can take risks, you can relax, you can sleep in peace.

As the other person says, “I got you!” You are safe, you feel protected.

Whereas, if the trust is broken by someone, it hurts deeply.

You lose that peace of mind, that assurance, that all is well, as the whole world crumbles around you.

My poem is about trust in humanity. That we are losing.

I got you.

Sitting with a broken leg,

on the side of the road

showing clearly, to the riders

that he needed to be saved,

begging one of them to stop,

with his crutch, the man waved,

listening to this call for help,

the rider, stopped, and

alighting from his horse,

offered his hand to this man in need,

and asked him to sit on his steed,

so he could take him to safety,

to his village, to his abode,

“I got you”,

he said with tenderness,

to this man with a broken leg,

who suddenly took hold of the reigns,

and kicking the horse with both of his legs

“I got you”!

he laughed, and bolted through,

galloping away on the stolen horse,

that now he rode,

the rider, crestfallen, for a minute was lost,

then suddenly ran after, shouting

“stop, please stop!”

“Go back”, the thief laughed,

“You can’t catch us, we are too fast”,

“No, no, no”,

“take the horse, and safely go”,

but promise, not to tell anyone

what you did today, your this deed

as no one will trust any one,

and no one will stop and help a person in real need.

This poem is based on a story, I had read, when I was very young in India. It is a true story, (I believe it was one of the stories written by a great scholar and educator, Pandit Iswar Chandra Vidya Sagar).

It taught me that we should respect people’s trust in the goodness, and make efforts to keep it. As once trust is broken, it cannot be rebuilt, and sometimes, if you lose trust in one person, you lose trust in the whole world.

So before we betray anyone’s trust, we should remember, we represent the rest of the world to that person, especially children, and those who look up to us, and have a great responsibility to keep their trust in humanity.

Thanks Sahil Patel for this great, and timely prompt, at a time, when trust is at its lowest ebb, everywhere, at every front.

July’s Fourth Week Prompt of Lifeline | by Sahil Patel | Lifeline | Jul, 2022 | Medium