A Colleague Retires.... Poem by Biswajit Basu

It is not easy, and I don't know why,

To bid a retiring friend and office-colleague goodbye,

Is it simply because you suddenly decided to call it a day,

Or because retirement makes the future uncertain and grey?

We worked hard for our company that we dearly did love,

Knowing that our limits were only the stars above.

A thousand medley of memories zip through my mind,

Of the elusive solutions we often struggled so hard to find.

I venture to say the Company thought us to be a good team,

Because our triumphs form stuff that many can only dream.

Yet it was not always that we had our nose to the grind,

Because a zillion instances of fun and joy also come to mind.

But time takes its toll and we cannot anymore be so quick,

As the eyes lose their sparkle and the bones begin to creak,

The body turns weary and painfully slow to respond,

Ah! If only we could reverse it by waving a magic wand.

But there are still new joys that are yet to be tasted,

Let us chase them for there is no time to be wasted,

Linger now to admire the grace of a soaring seagull on the wing,

Or a snowy tipped mountain reflecting off a placid lake in spring.

But now your work for our company is over, complete and done,

And the time has come to wheel your horse and ride into the sun.

The years pass so quick and to face the inevitable we must,

Let us experience it all before we revert again to stardust.

Farewell, my friend, for the Company flag has been furled,

I welcome you now to the retired world.