To Death Poem by O Sudhir Janardhanan

I was racing ahead to meet life
W’en death stepped in to take me aside
In journey mid I made a switch
On death I tried to hike a hitch

I asked no questions, I looked for no answers
Death is no mystery, for me, we are lovers
I have sought hard for its cold embrace
Yet, w’en it arrives, it comes with no grace

Stare away into an incandescent light
The sight leads to darkness bright
On minds cornea it leaves a blemish
A thin, obscure, dull sepia finish

Feel the dark, dense, blackness encircle me
The blood tastes iron as it rushes away from me
Putrefying, rotting, beastly, brutal stink
The smell of fear and death link

I do not know if this is what I want
It leaves me weak, helpless, down to the count
Fear, Death ethereal so primal
My soul, surreal refuses to die an animal

Shrieking silently, rumbling deeply it erupts
From the far reaches of my mind death it disrupts
Death’s clammy squeeze to love’s warm clasp
Battered, bruised my soul pushes me away from death’s grasp

Breath, scrambles and rushes in a gush
Bright red colors explode, my mind espy in a rush
I have broken the spell of death in its maze
I know, have repelled this with my life’s love and grace

To death now I do not wish so easy to tender
This being, soul, and love to a murder in suicide, I not render
Death, I know, will attempt to seduce me to its force
But ne’er without my last battle, can it ever have its will enforce