The special cracker

Written after the Delhi bomb blast in a marketplace last Diwali.
 
I got a special cracker
this Festival of Lights.
It was such fun when
my mother and I went shopping,
we bought clothes, sweets, diyas
and of course crackers.
I finally managed to persuade her to buy
the special cracker that
she has been saying I was too small for.
I could imagine myself setting off the rocket
and standing back and watching
as it took off and exploded with a loud pop
and then blossomed into
tiny pinpricks of light.
And sure enough, just then
there was a loud explosion
and a blaze of light.
My mother was thrown against me,
I hit the ground
and then nothing but blackness.

I am in hospital now,
there are tubes in my arms, nose and mouth.
My father fusses over me
with a sad expression.
Sometimes when I wake up from a doze,
I see him softly sobbing into his hands.
I want to reach up and stroke his head
like he used to when i cried,
but it hurts too much to move.
Maybe mother would do it if she was here,
but why isn't she coming?