Monday, April 11, 2005

Remains

Life was the little flower I saw on the way up the mountain
But my vision was fixed firm up and I didn’t spare it a glance
I put one step after another and left everything behind
The only hope, the cloud hovering over top promising to quench my thirst

At times, I stopped to catch my breath and caught a glimpse of the color
But the thought of a brighter color on top propelled me forward with no further thought
The early morning dew disappeared all too soon under a glaring sun and my conviction along
I carried on nonetheless, for I have come so far and there is no returning back

A moment of giddiness, the first creeping doubt, my sweating body insisted on embracing the ground
With a barren tree for company, its bark shade my friend, I leaned back and closed my eyes
And felt the lightest of touch, a fleeting memory and a promise of happiness
Smiling I looked – a tiny moth intent on finding his food flew here and there, with no seeming direction

Though my heart felt the oneness of being, my mind insisted on calling it a fool
High up on a dry mountain, with just a few tufts of grass, he had come seeking what is easily available down, on the call of a fickle smell
And as is common of moths, he too shall die soon, maybe of hunger, maybe of old age, maybe of the sun
But what will only remain is the scattered semblance of his dull body fading deep into the ground, with no signs of his hectic life

In a moment of bizarre coincidence, I saw him flutter and float to the ground
A little wind from nowhere tried her best to mock life and lifted his body high up again
But in a little while, she got bored and dropping the heaviness, sought her own course elsewhere
There was silence and there was the sun, there was the tree and the me- and the little moth, alive a moment before

As he touched the ground, the human heart, foolish as ever, sought a last drop of hope
Maybe the flower would help but suddenly it seemed too far below for either of us to reach
I have passed Life and so has he
In a moment of stillness, in this great cosmos, both of us became utterly alone and we were content

No comments: