Fierce You Are But Also Fair Poem by Dr. Tulsi Hanumanthu

Fierce You Are But Also Fair (About Death)

Never
For ever
Is man's breath:
And, O Death,
Not only 'age' alone
But, you blackly own
Many a shrouded courier more
To summon to your dooming door
Him whose life on earth you choose to end
And, back to God, whose soul you wish to send.

At times, you pick and choose your victim for your call;
At times, your wrath and rage en masse on masses fall.
Famine, floods, disease, war - each your servile slave,
Our masters are - our victors whom none can beat or stave.
Some thorny lanes of 'thwarted love', too, you lay
For hapless hearts, heavenwards to wend their way.

Fierce you are, O Death, but also fair:
No palace nor a hut your hand does spare.
All men, at last, you equal make:
A task no power could undertake
In this world, to do,
Has been left for you.
In death they lie -
Low and high -
Unsingled,
Mingled.