Death Is The Balm

 

Death comes in diverse ways

some wishful some accidental

but death is inevitable.

I may not like the idea

but do I have a choice?

 

I  too will die one day

but let me not fall from

the Himalayas while

touching the Everest,

the snow will numb my senses

my body will be untraced for days.

 

If fire engulfs me

my charred body cannot be

recognized by even my loved ones

my grace and beauty will be blackened

the pain would be horrendous.

 

I am no Sita the gaping earth

will not listen to my requests-

let go-

If I choose to die - 

Ganga is the best

it will purge all sins and 

take me to heaven to feast on

time space and immortality.

But why should I die

in airless earth

suffocated and crushed.

 

Let me die in the arms of

my love with eyes open

my beauty garnished

or while kissing my grandchildren

for laughing at my wrinkles.

Death must come as a balm of life

after I burnish the edges of 

life with devotional energy.   

Sabita Sahu