Farewell to Arms
(that held me)
I
‘Good mourning’ said mother
with sightless eyes and lifeless lips
As I turned her around,
Breathing her last weightless
In my arms.
Withered away kilo by kilo
By disease, the body
Was tied to the heart alive
With hope ,desires and will to live
With near and dear. Death
Impatient cut the Gordian knot
Linking her to the earth and idiot box
And carry away to the
Waiting kith and kin,
Solan’s happiness
From a world of pain, pills,
Stored oxygen and soaring bills.
II
A mother she was
To her own and the other’s.
Loving wife imprisoned
For life suffering the sins
Of a husband on fiscal, physical plane.
Sans letters, full of genetic wisdom
She found music in silence
And peace in patience.
III
The bruised body in high-tech
Electric cradle burns bright
And crumbles to handful ashes
That I scatter to the sea.
But not memories
Of a hand that cradled
A still-born child to life.
Awaiting dust but destined
To live and sea her off.
The soul awaits rituals man made
That the rational mind refuses to do.
But collective tears of loving loved ones
And crocodile’s too
Dissolves my resolve.
IV
As I sit silent to speed
The soul heaven wards
Besides fires fueled
By mumbo jumbo of
Chanting priests
Paid well, fed well ,My rational
Mind grumbles but
My heart mellowed by
Memories of mother, smiles
Suffering from momentary
Amnesia of principles.
V
Principles bring pride to one.
Bending them some times
Brings joy to many.
Pride therefore ,bows
Not goes before the joy.
Gopal, June 29,1998 .
Remembering a mother who died a day before.
