Death, My Neighbour Poem by Saroj Padhi

Death lives next door like my intimate enemy
whom though I secretly admire, I surely fear
for it has pushed houses around, into eerie silence
stabbing the heart of evening with jags of tear;

spilling more of darkness over the thresholds to life,
rain tears apart the leaves even in wondrous green
without a morsel of compassion in lashing wind
as like snails with hard cover, to frail self, we lean;

I fear if it would jump over the embattled wall
with its proverbial greed like a lusty lady to claim
its share of the body that aches with love to wither
and like a professional trickster may play its game;

death stalks us here like a street Romeo or Juliet
as we whisper each to each sorrow's sad couplet.