'The Final Passage' Poem by Pushpinder Kaur

The Final Passage

Have you ever been
to the
Burial Grounds
Or the Cremation Grounds?

Have you ever wondered
why must the final farewell
to mankind be
so sombre, eerie, and forlorn?

No doubt,
dust we are and to dust
shall we return
carrying an empty palm
and a lonely hand;

Yet the dark, and gloomy air
of the cremation grounds,
with logs of wood
piled in a corner;

The ground prepared for the final lay-

Or the Electric Crematorium
known to be the "best biological rendering for a corpse"
surrounded by sordid, dark and inhuman environs,
lined by a floor
which appears nothing more than a dumping godown;

Or the track for the final biddings
And the furnace-
seem to be the most unseemly
Farewell…

Yes, one does not ask
for a pomp and show;
for the dismal, dark and dreary air
putrefied in its ashiness,
is the final reminder of the final ash-

Oh, am I forgetting
the pair of peacocks
meandering through the Grounds?
Mocking the beauty of life?

All the same…

Surely... Mankind,
your final passage needs be more refined!




Pushpinder Kaur 2nd September 2016