Category: Poetry

Return

Earth to Earth,
Dust to Dust,
Ashes to Ashes

As I open my eyes, I see wide open sky. I find myself lying here among the grass and the shrubs. I do not remember how I got here, or how long I’ve been. All I can sense is the song of the birds.

I see a butterfly hovering over my chest. There it made a home in my ribs. A plant has risen from the place where my eye was. I can barely move. I neither feel my arms nor my legs. All I see is a mound in their place.

A deep slumber is approaching as I lay sinking into the earth. I do not know when I will wake up again. I shall take a leave now as I return to earth; dust to dust; ashes to ashes.

14 December, 2021 Add Comment

Epitaph

Weep not nor relent

My life to you was only lent

In love we lived, in peace I died

You asked my life it was denied

Grieve not nor to sorrow take

But love my children for my sake

–

From an epitaph on a tombstone of Teresa D’ Vaz, wife of a heartbroken man, Andrew D’ Vaz. Aged 26 years, she left him too early with a wound, a void and children who remind of her. They entered into a covenant, till death do them part. Yet death separated them.

The gravestone made in 1889, stands remarkably intact here in Our Lady of Good Health Catholic Cemetery, Cuddapah. It has withstood the test of time through generations, standing among the graves of brown men and women. Carved by undertaker/sculptor, Samuel Mullenex from Bangalore.

12 December, 2021 Add Comment