Where are You, Master?
- Deep from the Soul -
K. Radhakumar *
Those are pearls that were his eyes.
Shakespeare
My daddy loved to go walking
Across grassland of Lamphel in the morning.
He used to wipe the remains of sleep off his face
With dewdrops collected in the palm of his hands
From the virgin blades of grass.
He breathed deeply
Before reciting poems
To the surrounding hills
And to the live audience
Of Jack our pet dog and I.
Such was his appreciation of poetry
Reciting poems early in the morning
In his deep and loud voice
In the echoing greens of Lamphel.
In the last days of his life
Jack was his constant companion
For as I grew up we just drifted apart –
I immersed myself in the side issues of life
Keeping my passion for literature in abeyance.
One evening, my daddy died.
For a few days, it was a simple thing:
Funeral rites, offer of condolences
Have become something of a ritual –
Thank goodness, that was over.
One morning a moment caught me unawares:
The barren wilderness of life
Stole over my whole being;
The full blow of the loss sank in
And I felt empty.
Suddenly I found I was not alone –
Our Jack was lying by the easy chair
Of its master, now unoccupied.
It looked distinctly uncomfortable
And its eyes were watery, and told its own tale.
* Poem written by K. Radhakumar which was published at Hueiyen Lanpao (English Edition)
This poem was webcasted on July 7 2013.
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