THE TWILIGHT

POEM

Sun had shed

his intense anger

with the slow approach of twilight.

From afar I saw my

uncle in his saffron 

robe sitting on a concrete bench

under a gulmohar tree with full of

red flowers.

He was sitting alone

as if he was expecting somebody

coming to visit him.

He had become too lean

looking like a breathing skeleton.

When he saw me approaching him

his eyes shone and tears welled up in his eyes.

I sat near him and gifted me a painful smile.

From a millionaire to a

pauper because of

his uncontrolled drinking

with his so-called

friends in the faraway city.

And he finding no other way

started disposing of his business empire.

At last he along with his family caught a train

to his native village

followed by shifting 

to his wife’s house. 

‘Auntie and children

coming to meet

you once in a

while, No?’ I enquired him.

With sarcasm writ large on his face

he told me:

‘Even if the children

wanted to see me

the ultimate authority

is she and no one else.’

The twilight sun

went down the western

horizon with the fall of darkness.

‘She has amassed a huge amount

while I was spending my  golden days

 in the faraway city,

and when I became bankrupt

 she asked me to go out of her house

since she didn’t have any  need of me.

I saw my children silently

weeping which broke my heart.

Meanwhile the disease reached its

final stage and I caught

a bus to meet  my one

and only brother who

was instrumental in

admitting me in the sanatorium.

Occasionally he comes to me

from  the faraway house and 

spent some precious moments with me.

The river of

time was flowing quickly.

‘Uncle, let’s go

inside the sanatorium

and it is too dark’

we entered it and I helped him to

lie on his bed.

I gave him some money and told :

This is for my satisfaction. Please

accept it. I shall come

to meet you at least

twice o r thrice of a month.

Tears flowed down from his eyes…..                                                                                                           

and from my eyes too as I was  walking

to the street side

to catch an auto or bus to the city

to catch the train chugging  fast

runs  thru my village.

His emaciated figure

reflected again and again

in the mirror of my mind………..