What Do We Live For? Poem by Daniel Trevelyn Joseph

By the time we reach
The stage to ask this question
We have passed a few years on earth:
We have studied, acquired some skills,
Landed some employment, and married
And are steaming along the way,
Getting higher bands in career
Producing children at home.

When the question arises in 40s
Wife consoles, diplomatically reminding
You have to get your daughter
Married, and build your own house,
Neighbours and colleagues say
That you are yet to reach the top
Become the CEO, or get pension.


Later interested in philosophy,
And yoga and meditation,
One watches one’s breath,
Goes inward and start visiting temples:
If not proceed to Igatpuri
To learn vipassna,
In any case quoting
Sacred texts unctuously.

Then one realizes
That it is still a journey
To where one doesn’t know
Physical death being only certainty.

Is this the objective,
Is it what we came for?
Or, having been born,
We are throwing up options
To satisfy ourselves in this game,
All answers being irrelevant!