THE GAMES WE PLAY (A POEM )
“Why don’t you drop in for coffee, some…time?”
My park friend asked, a safe distance away from home.
“Why don’t you do the same, when you visit your relatives
In our Apartment Complex?” I countered.
We both said things that the other won’t do.
When we meet we have little to say save “Hello, how are you doing?”
As we pass each other at express speed as if hurrying to put out a fire.
After a long absence, we hello with vigor and enquire what happened,
Where were you, and say we missed you and many other things we don’t mean.
Any passer by should conclude we are old friends, solicitous with concern
While we have met only in the park and learnt to smile to each other, after a lifetime
Of wooden looks that a tree would frown on.
In these times of drought, even a smile is a fortune. We have no time often even for that.
Has the river of goodness and fellow feeling dried up before reaching our hearts or
Has the new maqsad of life erected bunds to enfamish our souls?
I have always wondered – had I accepted my friend’s invitation and visited him
Would I throw him into confusion or disturb his universe?
What would we talk about – I an academic and he an accountant: the weather, the taste of cappuccino or politics or would he look at me to probe why I came and when I would leave!
Would he say how much he enjoyed my visit and would I come again, some… time?
Or silently mull, now that it is over, I am glad that it is over!
Can we never prove Eric Berne wrong!
Eric Berne : (1910 – 1970). Psychiatrist. Founder of Transactional Analysis (T.A), author of Games people play, What do you say after you say Hello , who maintained that most of us have nothing more to say after the usual initial conversational “strokes”.
