When Mother Is No More
On the road to forever.
By the way of stars.
Cluster of constellations
Gateways to her.
Our journeys begin and end on different dates.
We step onwards at different paces.
But we will visit the same places.
If this is the only way I retrace your steps.
Togetherness is not a surety.
Following in your footsteps is rediscovering you.
I don’t know what lies ahead after death.
Yet fully confident, enmeshed our fates.
A supra awareness beyond reason, of blessings.
The universe being orchestrated by kinder more loving hands,
Ma, in stellar residence your presence glistening,
since you took leave of us, to manage things upstairs.
I have learnt to accept all truths, embrace every dare.
A Father’s Worth
He smoked a collection of pipes
He favoured a salmon silk shirt
I coveted his oyster grey Tie
I thought he was Harrison Ford.
He wasn’t mine
But my best friend’s father.
So quiet and composed,
Tall as an overhanging cliff
His gentle lined face worn out
With some subtle synonym of grief.
Since his wife this earth left
Bereft this dad, did his manly best.
To raise my best friend.
And a finer job couldn’t have been done.
(She of sunny confidence.
Caring and carefree,
A bundle of fierce hope and fun.
The day he passed away
I was at my son’s school
Competing for a seat for my younger one,
At this prestigious seat of education.
Elsewhere in the city passed away
A more venerable institution.
A father’s worth
Is a legacy of love
And discipline.
To seed courage and commitment
To be firm and fair.
To stand up and face the sun
Outstare fear.
Always unseen support
From within.
From distances beyond
Human reckoning.
Fathers are tangible memories.
Of blazing sunlight
Penetrating cold distant starlight.
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