Empty Space Poem by Samarendranath Mahapatra

All will leave one after one
All will leave
my daughter for Kharagpur
my son for Bangalore for study
my wife on a transfer to Rairangpur.

The prayer hall would miss
Three out of the regular four
Who can say
What would happen to the evening lamp
to the prayer,
When evening would be so silent
How solitary the night would be!

And the heart would turn quiet
Where no one to hear anything
Who would come to read the mind?
Life seems to turn a blank space
Inside this heart
All will go away
The daughter to the in-laws
The son to his workplace
The wife to her parents'
All will leave
Only I would remain like
a rotten coat in the wardrobe.