ALS NaPoWriMo 2026 Day 4: Imagine you are renovating your house and write about the memories you find on the walls.
Poem: The Blue Wall of Memories
I had painted it blue–
Prussian blue–
So the paintings to be hung on it could appear lively
But the wall itself looked lively
In fact, all the walls of the place we called home had some stories to tell
The stories of our children’s childhood–
The scuffs and scratches in pencils and pens
The doodling on the entire wall of one room
The record of their growing up as the height chart
The abrasions and gouges caused by balls and bicycles
The walls were adorned with family pictures
As if our entire life was ornately captured
The moments that time had erased from our memories
The moments that captured the journey of our relationships
These walls donned these as if glorifying our successes
A sea of emotions had washed the walls of cement
Some prized certificates, some beautiful souls we’d lost
Some artworks that depicted my journey as an artist
And some voices that were silent in the cracks on these walls
Weren’t these witnesses to more than we thought?
My mind argued that these should be left intact
They were a repertoire of our times, good and bad
But how could we move forward if we were obsessed with our past
It was time to write new chapters in the ink of our past
Let the walls reflect our progress as we let go of our past
I let my children choose the new colour for the walls
They, too, happened to choose the colour blue
But not my blue, another tint of blue
The one that reflected them
The one that glorified them!
©Vandana Bhasin
04.04.2026