I Saw A Beggar This Evening…not Begging Poem by Debasis Chatterjee

I saw a beggar this evening on my way back home
sitting in a corner of the sidewalk
hands folded across, legs crouched as far as possible
head bowed -like a mound of sacks thrown
on to the sidewalk after the festivities.

but he was not begging!

I stood away in another corner under darkness
watching…
something in his demeanor caught me in my heart;

he was shaking his head as if saying "NO" to someone
or cursing himself in disgust
or moaning in agony at not being able to exit the world.

He looked up once at the opposite light post
and I saw a glimpse of his upturned face - it was
tired, bitter, lost and beaten by the Life,
it was a face full of lines of lifelong struggle for survival,
maybe once he had everyone surrounding him in love and care
even amid his fight against Life…

Now he is vanquished
forever,
none by his side in his final agony;
He needs not crave for anything now but death -
a death as free of ever present pain as light as of
a falling feather,
a final end to scorching heat and fount of rains
in his Life's journey….

I felt afraid at the utter helplessness
at his crumbling submission;

no respite from such horrors of life?
or most of us destined to finally succumb
like this to the mockery of Life
on some sidewalk somewhere?


- October 2017, KOLKATA, INDIA