Bygone Palmyras
Two friends from far-off Mumbai
Used to interact in the media
With me, one always supportive
The other invariably vituperative
Both are now silent and mum
Since many days, quite unlike them
That made me over-curious
To probe their Facebook pages
Alas, the guys haven’t posted
Anything in the last couple of years
Where have they vanished?
God forbid the scary thought
And then here is another guy
He is getting admitted he informs
In a hospital for a minor procedure
Hopes to return soon to our midst
With his latest literature
His children then write the next day
On his wall, he has flown away
There is a social media site
Which publishes news
About my locality and surrounds
Mostly death news it carries
Of those in their sixties, seventies and eighties
With their pictures and family details
Some faces are familiar
Others difficult to recapture
Media has done distance away
Obits are the order of the day
Tailored for both the well-known and unknown
Tears and folded hands abound
To be forgotten before the Moon completes a round
The octogenarian me looks around
Misses several faces known from childhood
Time has levelled the ground
Palmyras of yore have gone
Unfamiliar foliage now abounds
That is life, boy!
My bones creak philosophically
Lemme raise a toast
To all those who meant
Something to my being
Biding time
Till another page opens up
Before my closing eyes
To a landscape
Of towering palmyras
Swinging their long hair
Like Arab ladies of the Gulf
In a frenzied swaying dance
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