( To my father's kin who remained the light of our life)
I am not bidding you farewell,
For you made the inn a home!
In my adolescent years,
You dropped in like a knight,
Spending half a century for homeland,
Melting the rest on me.
I recall the thorny routes,
Your feet surpassed.
You were certain a Marlboro could blaze our home,
That we could drown when you are sloshed,
Your mutilation could extinguish our joys,
And you abstained with a hermit's air,
Executing Japanese strategy.
Many summers apart,
I saw you wail for life,
Fighting leukemia with all vigour.
Papa rushed in bankruptcy,
Casting off Darkwater,
And bone breaking decades,
To press your feet.
I could barely register,
And I dismissed him.
Then in a lightening it struck,
You were the man!
You were the man,
Father to my orphaned mother,
My Godfather and Papa's God!
When I apprehended I sobbed,
As if on the prior day at kindergarten,
Gradually breaking to shreds,
Sensing your soothing fondles at midnight,
Like an ember burning out,
I rose at dawn to see you charred !