Up To Embrace Death Poem by Prafulla Kumar Panda

Although panting, he didn't rest under that yon shade.
but was walking alongpast me, the house, the green turf where children playedpast everything, he could avoid.

one day I followed, since I had him observed for many days.
with a heavy heart, I asked, 'dear Life, where are you up to go? '
with a pleasant grin, he quoth:
'a passer-by I have 'enlike the rain, or the river;
like the sage, or the lover,
tirelessly I walk towards my harbour'

'why don't take one who can give you a good company,
with talks and laughs, can make your journey worth enjoying? '
'Truth- although, a gossamer being
always walks with me
so softly he talks, often so knightly laughs
so radiantly glows when new paths he shows

the bale of worries once bent me and overcast
and the drudgery, now I leave with the past
in the quagmire of liesi no longer wriggle like a fallen angel
sans sleep, sans a dream, sans everything

a bed so cosy, I know, so cosily he has prepared
to sleep a night that no longer breaks
and where a night of darkness no sooner melts
to dream a dream of full length
and sleep until I get up double refreshed

as soon as the darkness melts
surely I can walk into the Heaven
in his embrace'.

©Prafulla Panda, India
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