A Retreating Soul Poem by Spandan T. Mohapatra

I saw the face of disgust
Through his eyes of innocence
For a moment realisation
Disrelished my own repugnance

I had oodles, still poured
A jug to the sea of ignorance
Happy he was as tears trickled
Down his beaming countenance

Struggled and stumbled
Till I quaffed my wine
But with the tide of life forgoed
My dawn when I was benign

Perversions of opulence
Permute the common coterie
Here I walk with them
Now that I see in me

For a split I mulled over
Her beauty and a healing rain
The silent vow of walking together
That I had long forsaken

The smile of a frail old lady
Covering up her expectations
Yearning to devote her son
More of her motherly affections

And a jaded man bound by
The shackles of greed and rile
Won accolades in the race of life
But has lost his satiated smile

The moment so eternal when
A shabby little kid raised his bowl
Beseeching a hard-pressed man
Showing a mirror to a retreating soul