Tapering Poem by Daniel Trevelyn Joseph

The year was 1949 or 50, I was four or five years old:
The place was near the well in our house in Zambropuram,
In Madurai. I am taking a long time having bath,
Mom comes in and asks why, I reply, 'I want to be fair like
Kiruba my cousin and so I am applying soap, hard on myself'!

Later in life I always did things excessively,
Read more books than in the syllabus,
Took more tablets to speed up the cure,
Did the exercises more often expecting faster effect.
If teacher said ten reps, I did 20 or at least 15.

Wife would comment that I did not have the virtue
Of moderation, and that I did things way beyond necessity.
As usual she is right, but then from childhood
I seem to have been like that and why change now?

Nearing the end of my seventh decade, I am doing
Structured Life Review and this is a reminiscence.
Just finished reading May Sarton the Journal of
A Solitude and felt the justice of Kathopanishad

Which says, 'The senses of the body ebb and flow~
That is their nature.
Knowing this, the wise do not lament their passing away.'