Sunset of our Lives – by Robin Gupta, Principal Advisor- VoW
What is clearer now,
More than it was before;
Is the sun lingering in crimson cloud,
over the dying day.
The houses, at times home,
That we lived in and left, behind
Are a chiaroscuro of puzzling images,
Without sequence, no arrangement, either;
Images of loves that seemed so potent,
So full of promise,
not so long ago.
Our children tugged at our sleeves then
with eyes moist with tears;
‘Not going to school, not without you.
They played hide and seek around a rockery
Of the flowering cactus, we built for them
In the house that was our home
to take them to Greece, where lived Socrates
with Aristotle and Plato strolling
beneath groves of Olive trees.
We put up a tall bronze statue of Neptune
Standing tall in the midst of a fountain;
Not knowing the children would be lifted
By the sea god;
to distant lands; over distant seas;
And when they waved their small palms
To say adieu; it was a finality;
In fact a goodbye!
‘See you Christmas week’ they said
With armloads of basement sale gifts.
‘We will come to see you;
See you again and again’
‘Age is just a number,
did you not know’
‘ We will come to you again,
but what will we do here,
Where’s the action’ they asked.
‘There is no action here,
Just the cows slowly returning
To their homes and temple bells
Against the rising cadence of Raag Shri
That the temple priest sings
Tonelessly.
There is no action here dear child
There never was anything that changed
But for the seasons and little children,
Growing big like you are now.
So go your way my darlings,
We will sit by the vacant bandstand
Full of thoughts of you
There is no action here,
But for the rhythmic rocking
of my mother’s chair.
Robin Gupta,
29th June 2020